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WILBUR WRIGHT 

Who with his younger brother, Orville Wright, invented the first 
practical aeroplane. Wilbur Wright's death of typhoid fever in the 
summer of 1912 was an irreparable loss to aviation 



THE BOY'S BOOK 
OF NEW INVENTIONS 



BY 



HARRY E. MAULE 




MANY ILLUSTRATIONS 



Garden City New York 
DOUBLEDAY. PAGE & COMPANY 

1912 



< 






Copyright, 191 2, by 

DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 

All rights reserved including that of 

translation into foreign languages, 

including the Scandinavian 



©CU327892 



To My Mother 

In Appreciation of Her Broad Interest 

In All the Activities of the World 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

The thanks of the publishers and author are due a 
great many individuals and publications for aid in 
securing photographs and data used in the prepara- 
tion of this volume. 

Although space prevents giving the names of all, 
opportunity is here taken to express to each the 
heartiest appreciation of their generous help and 
valuable suggestions. 

More than to all of these are my thanks due my 
wife, Edna O'Dell Maule, for her constant aid and 
cooperation. 



PREFACE 

IN THE preparation of this book the author 
has tried to give an interesting account of the 
invention and workings of a few of the 
machines and mechanical processes that are mak- 
ing the history of our time more wonderful and 
more dramatic than that of any other age since 
the world began. For heroic devotion to science 
in the face of danger and the scorn of their fellow- 
men, there is no class w T ho have made a better 
record than inventors. Most inventions, too, 
are far more than scientific calculation, and it is 
the human story of the various factors in this 
great age of invention that is here set forth for 
boy readers. 

New discoveries, or new applications of forces 
known to exist, illustrating some broad principle 
of science, have been the chief concern of the 
author in choosing the subjects to be taken up 
in the various chapters, so that it has been neces- 
sary to limit the scope of the book, except in one 
or two instances, to inventions that have come 
into general use within the last ten years. In 



PREFACE 

"The Boy's Book of Inventions/' "The Second 
Boy's Book of Inventions," and "Stories of In- 
vention," Mr, Baker and Mr, Doubleday have 
told the stories of many of the greatest inventions 
up to 1904, including those of the gasoline motor, 
the wireless telegraph, the dirigible balloon, pho- 
tography, the phonograph, submarine boats, etc. 
Consequently for the most part the important 
developments in some of these machines are 
treated briefly in the final chapters, while the 
earlier chapters are devoted to new inventions, 
which, if made before 1904, did not receive gen- 
eral notice until after that time. 

Although the subjects treated in the earlier 
chapters are here spoken of as new inventions, all 
of them are not recent in the strictest sense of the 
word, for men had been working on the central 
idea of some of them for many years before they 
actually were developed to a stage where they 
could be patented and sent out into the world. 

H. E. M. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The Aeroplane . . . 3 

How a Scientist Who Liked Boys and a Boy Who 
Liked Science Followed the Fascinating Story of 
the Invention of the Aeroplane. 

II. Aeroplane Development 49 

How the Inventors Carried On the Art of Avia- 
tion Until It Became the Greatest of All Sports 
and Then a Great Industry. 

III. Aeroplanes To-day 91 

Our Boy Friend and the Scientist Look Over 
Modern Aeroplanes and Find Great Improve- 
ments Over Those of a Few Years Ago. A 
Model Aeroplane. 

IV. Artificial Lightning Made and Harnessed 

To Man's Use 129 

Our Friends Investigate Nikola Tesla's Invention 
for the Wireless Transmission of Power, by 
Which He Hopes to Encircle the Earth With 
Limitless Electrical Power, Make Ocean and Air 
Travel Absolutely Safe, and Revolutionize Land 
Traffic. 

V The Motion Picture Machine .... 164 

Machines That Make Sixteen Tiny Pictures Per 
Second and Show Them at the Same Rate Mag- 
nified Several Thousand Times. Motion Pic- 
tures in School. Our Boy Friend Sees the 
Whole Process of Making a Motion Picture Play. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

VI. Adventures With Motion Pictures . . 195 
Perilous and Exciting Times in Obtaining Motion 
Pictures. How the Machine Came to Be In- 
vented and the Newest Developments in Cinema* 
tography. 

VII. Steel Boiled Like Water and Cut Like 

Paper 224 

Our Boy Friend Sees How Science Has Turned 
the Greatest Known Heats to the Everyday Use 
of Mankind. 

VIII. The Tesla Turbine 263 

Dr. Nikola Tesla Tells of His New Steam Tur- 
bine Engine, a Model of Which, the Size of a 
Derby Hat, Develops More Than 110 Horse 
Power. 

IX. The Romance of Concrete ...... 288 

The One Piece House of Thomas A. Edison and 
Other Uses of the Newest and Yet the Oldest 
Building Material of Civilized Peoples, Seen By 
the Boy and His Scientific Friend. 

X. The Latest Automobile Engine .... 320 
Our Boy Friend and the Scientist Look Over the 
Field of Gasoline Engines and See Some Big 
Improvements Over Those of a Few Years Ago. 

XI. The Wireless Telegraph Up To The Minute 332 
The Scientist Talks of Amateur Wireless Opera- 
tors. The Great Development of Wireless That 
Has Enabled It to Save Three Thousand Lives. 
Long Distance Work of the Modern Instruments. 

XII. More Marvels of Science 352 

Color Photography, the Tungsten Electric Lamp, 
the Pulmotor, and Other New Inventions In- 
vestigated by Our Boy Friend. 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Wilbur Wright Frontispiece 

PACING PAGE 

The First Wright Aeroplane 4 

The First Wright Glider 5 

The Second Wright Glider 5 

A Long Glide 5 

Motor of the Wright Biplane 12 

A 16-Cylinder, 100-Horsepower Antoinette Motor . 12 

An 8-Cylinder, 50-Horsepower Curtiss Motor . . 12 

Standard Gnome Aeroplane Motor 13 

A 14-Cylinder, 100-Horsepower Gnome Motor . . 13 

Testing a Gnome Motor on a Gun Carriage . . . 13 

Model Aeroplane Fliers 16 

A Modern College Man's Glider 17 

Otto Lilienthal Making a Flight in His Glider . . 17 

The Chanute Type Glider 32 

The Herring Glider 32 

An Early Helicopter 32 

Prof. Samuel Pierepont Langley 33 

Sir Hiram Maxim 33 

Octave Chanute «'>:> 

Langley 's Steam Model 3(> 

The Maxim Aeroplane 86 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



• 



Medals Won by the Wright Brothers 37 

The First Santos-Dumont Aeroplane 44 

The Cross-Channel Type Bleriot Monoplane . . 44 

A Voisin Biplane 44 

Glenn Curtiss About to Make a Flight 45' 

Henri Farman Starting Aloft with Two Passengers 45 

Louis Bleriot 45 

Glenn Curtiss Making a Flight in the June Bug . 52 

Orville Wright Making a Flight at Fort Myer . . 52 
The First Letter Ever Written Aboard an Aeroplane 

in Flight 53 

The Goddess of Liberty 60* 

First Actual War Expedition of an Aeroplane . . 61 

War Manoeuvres 61 

Harry N. Atwood Arriving at Chicago 64> 

Finish of Atwood's St. Louis to New York Flight . 64 - 

Starting with the Aeroplane Mail 65 ^ 

Chavez on His Fatal Flight Across the Alps ... 80 
The Late Calbraith P. Rodgers, Trans-Continental 

Flier . 81 ■ 

The World's Longest Glide 96 

The End of a Glide 96 

Landing on a Warship 97 

Boarding a Battleship 97 

The Curtiss Flying Boat 112 

The Flying Boat Starting 112 

Glenn Curtiss Allowing His Hydro-Aeroplane to 

Float on the Water After Alighting .... 112 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

Hydro- Aeroplanes at Monte Carlo 113 

The Wright Biplane 116 

Standard Curtiss Biplane 117 

Curtiss Steering Gear 117 

Standard Parman Biplane 120 

Farman with Enclosed Nose 120 

A Modern Bleriot 121 

A Standard Bleriot 121 

Passenger-Carrying Bleriot 121 

The Antoinette Monoplane 124 

The Nieuport Monoplane 125 

Like a Bolt of Lightning 136 

Dr. Nikola Tesla 137 

Doctor Tesla's First Power Plant 137 

Electricity Enough to Kill an Army .... 164 

A Battle Scene in the Studio 165 

The Men Who Gave the World Motion Pictures. 172 

The Motion-Picture Projector . 173 

A Section of Motion-Picture Film 176 

Making a Motion-Picture Play in the Studio . . 177 

A Motion-Picture Studio 192 

A Realistic Film of Washington Crossing the Dela- 
ware 193 

The Corsican Brothers — A Famous Trick Film . 200 

The Guillotine 201 

A Romance of the Ice Fields 216 

The Spanish Cavalier 216 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

All Ready for a Thermit Weld 217 

Thermit in Eruption 224 

Dr. Hans Goldschmidt 225 

Thermit Weld on Sternframe of a Steamship . . . 240 

A Large Shaft Welded by the Thermit Process . . 240 

Cutting Up the Old Battleship Maine .... 241 

Cutting Away the Decks 241 

An Oxy-Acetylene Gas Torch Weld 260 

Tiny 200-Horsepower Turbine 261 

The Tesla Turbine Pump .261 

The Marvellous Tesla Turbine 280 

Thomas A. Edison and His Concrete Furniture . . 281 

Model of Edison Poured Concrete House .... 281 y 

What One Set of Boys Did with Concrete ... 288 

Massive Concrete Work 289 

A Level Stretch of Catskill Aqueduct 289 

Huge Concrete Moulds at Panama 304 

Concrete Locks on the Panama Canal .... 305 

The World-Wide Use of Concrete 308 

The Catskill Aqueduct 309 

The Aqueduct Deep Under Ground 309 

The Silent Knight Motor 316 

A Portable Army Wireless Outfit 317 

The Wireless in the Navy 317 

The Navy Wireless School 344 

An Amateur Wireless Outfit 345 



THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 



CHAPTER I 
THE AEROPLANE 

HOW A SCIENTIST WHO LIKED BOYS AND A BOY 
WHO LIKED SCIENCE FOLLOWED THE FASCINATING 
STORY OF THE INVENTION OF THE AEROPLANE. 

WHEN, with engine throbbing, propellers 
whirling, and every wire vibrating, the 
first successful aeroplane shot forward into 
the teeth of a biting December gale and sailed steadily 
over the bleak North Carolina sand dunes for twelve 
seconds, the third great epoch in the age of invention 
finally was ushered in. First, man conquered the 
land with locomotive, electricity, steam plow, tele- 
graph, telephone, wireless and a thousand other in- 
ventions. Almost at the same time he conquered 
the ocean with steamship, cable, and wireless. Now, 
through the invention of the aeroplane, he is making 
a universal highway of the air. 

Such was the way the real beginning of aviation 
was summarized one day to a bright young man who 
spent all his spare time out of school at the laboratory 
of his good friend the scientist. Always in good 
humour, and with a world of knowledge of things thai 



4 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

delight a boy's heart, the man was never too deep 
in experiments to answer any questions about the 
great inventions that have made this world of ours 
such a very interesting place 

The laboratory was filled with models of machines, 
queer devices for scientific experiment, a litter of 
delicate tools, shelves of test tubes, bottles filled with 
strange smelling fluids, and rows upon rows of 
books that looked dull enough, but which the 
scientist explained to the boy contained some of 
the most fascinating stories ever told by man. 

Coming back to aeroplanes the boy said, "But 
my father says that aviation is so new it is still very 
imperfect." 

"That is true," answered the scientist, taking 
a crucible out of the flame of his Bunsen burner 
and hanging it in the rack to cool, "but it has seen 
a marvellous development in the last few years. 

"It was less than ten years ago — the end of 1903, 
to be exact — that Orville and Wilbur Wright first 
sailed their power-driven aeroplane," he continued, 
"but so rapid has been the progress of aviation that 
nowadays w T e are not surprised when a flight from 
the Atlantic to the Pacific is accomplished. It 
seems a tragic thing that Wilbur Wright should have 
been called by death, as he was in May, 1912, by 
typhoid fever, for he was at the very zenith of his 
success and probably wxmld have carried on his 
work to a far. far greater development." 





o 
o 












THE FIRST WRIGHT GLIDER 
This device was first flown as a kite without a pilot, and the levers 
worked by ropes from the ground, to test the principles 




"'^ WKm0 KlffS ^I ^' 




THE SECOND WRIGHT GLIDER 

The machine was launched into the air from the top of a sand dune 
against a high wind, and proved a great success 




A LONG GLIDE 

Wright glider in full flight over Kill Devil Hill, N. C. 



THE AEROPLANE 5 

After a little pause the scientist continued, saying 
that, at the time the Wright brothers made their 
first flight they were experimenting with what we 
now know as a biplane, or Chanute type glider, at 
Kill Devil Hill, near Kitty Hawk, N. C. It is a 
desolate wind-swept spot on the coast where only a 
little rank marsh grass grows on the sheltered sides 
of the great sand dunes. The brothers chose this 
barren place for their experiments because here the 
winds were the most favourable for their purpose. 

They were not ready for their first attempt to fly 
in a motor-propelled machine until December 17th, 
and though they sent out a general invitation to the 
few people living in that section, only five braved the 
cold wind. Three of these were life savers from 
the Kill Devil Hill station near by. Doubtless the 
other people had heard of the numerous failures of 
flying machines and expected the promised exhibi- 
tion of the silent young men who had spent the 
autumn in their neighbourhood, to be just another 
such. They were sadly mistaken, for they missed 
a spectacle that never before had been seen in all 
the history of the world. Nowadays we are familiar 
with the sight of an aeroplane skimming over the 
ground and then soaring into the sky, but to the five 
people who, besides the inventors, were present it 
undoubtedly was almost beyond belief. 

The brothers had installed a specially constructed 
gasoline engine in their glider, and after thoroughly 



6 THE BOYS BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

testing it they carried the machine out on to a level 
stretch of sand, turned it so that it would face the 
wind, and while the life savers held it in place the 
brothers went over every wire and stay. They felt 
perfectly confident that the machine would fly, but 
they made no predictions, and in fact spoke but few 
words between themselves or to the five men gathered 
about the aeroplane. The machine was not the 
smoothly finished one we know to-day as the Wright 
biplane. The operator lay flat on his face on the 
lower plane, the elevating rudder composed of two 
smaller planes stuck out in front, instead of behind, 
and there were several other important differences in 
design, but in principle it was the same machine 
that has carried the fame of the American inventors 
around the world. 

Finally the operator took his place, the engine was 
started, the signal was given, the men holding the 
machine dropped back and it started out along the 
rail from which it was launched. It ran along the 
track to the end, directly against the wind, and rose 
into the air. 

It meant that the air had been turned into a high- 
way, but the Wright brothers were very modest in 
setting down an account of their achievement. 

"The first flight/ 5 they wrote, "lasted only twelve 
seconds," a flight very modest compared with that 
of birds, but it was, nevertheless, the first in the 
history of the world in which a machine carrying 



THE AEROPLANE 7 

a man had raised itself by its own power into the 
air in free flight, had sailed forward on a level course 
without reduction of speed, and had finally landed 
without being wrecked. The second and third 
flights (the same day) were a little longer, and the 
fourth lasted fifty-nine seconds, covering a distance 
of 853 feet over the ground against a twenty-mile 
wind. 

"After the last flight the machine was carried back 
to camp and set down in what was thought to be a 
safe place. But a few minutes later, when engaged 
in conversation about the flights, a sudden gust of 
wind struck the machine and started to turn it 
over. All made a rush to stop it, but we were too 
late. Mr. Daniels, a giant in stature and strength, 
was lifted off his feet, and, falling inside between the 
surfaces, was shaken about like a rattle in a box as 
the machine rolled over and over. He finally fell 
out upon the sand with nothing worse than painful 
bruises, but the damage to the machine caused a 
discontinuance of experiments. " 

"Thus," said the scientist, we see the record aero- 
plane flight for 1903 was 853 feet while in 1911 a 
Wright biplane flew more than 3,000 miles from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific. In ten years more we may 
look back to our monoplanes and biplanes of to-day in 
the same way we do now on the first cumbersome 
4 horseless carriages' that were replaced by the high- 
powered automobiles we know now. Sonic experts in 



8 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

aeronautics say that we may even see the complete 
passing of the monoplane and biplane types in favour 
of some now unknown kind of aeroplane. " 

Who knows but that the man to invent the perfect 
aeroplane will be one of the boy readers of this! 
Everywhere the making and flying of model aero- 
planes by boys is looked upon, not only as play, 
but as a valuable and instructive sport for boys 
and young men of any age. One of the indica- 
tions of this may be seen in the public interest taken 
in the tournaments of boys' model aeroplane clubs. 
Not only do crowds of grown people with no technical 
knowledge of aeroplanes attend the tournaments, 
but also older students of aviation who realize that 
among the young model fliers there may be another 
Orville or Wilbur Wright, a Bleriot, or a Farman. 

So important is this knowledge of aviation con- 
sidered that the principles and the practical construc- 
tion of model aeroplanes are taught in many of the 
public schools. Instead of spending all their school 
hours in the study of books, the boys now spend a 
part of their time in the carpenter shop making the 
model aeroplanes which they enter in the tourna- 
ments. Of course, dozens of types of models are 
turned out, some good and some bad, but in the 
latter part of Chapter III is given a brief outline 
for the construction of one of the simplest and most 
practicable model aeroplanes. 

Not only the schools but the colleges also have 



THE AEROPLANE 9 

taken up aviation, and nearly every college has its 
glider club, and the students work many hours mak- 
ing the gliders with which they contest for distance 
records with other clubs. As a consequence aviation 
has become a regular department of college athletics, 
and intercollegiate glider meets are a common thing. 
The epochs of invention go hand in hand with the 
history of civilization, for it has been largely through 
invention that man has been able to progress to 
better methods of living. In the olden days, when 
there were few towns and every one lived in a castle, 
or on the land owned by the lord of the castle, 
war was the chief occupation, and the little com- 
munities made practically everything they used by 
hand. When they went abroad they either walked 
or rode horses, or went in clumsy ships. Pretty soon 
men began to invent better ways of doing things; 
one a better way of making shoes, another a better 
way of making armour, and the people for miles 
around would take to going to these men for their 
shoes and armour. Towns sprang up around these 
expert workmen, and more inventions came, bring- 
ing more industries to the towns. Inventions made 
industry bigger, and war more disastrous because of 
the improvement invention made in weapons. Then 
came inventions that changed the manner of living 
for all men — the machines for making cloth, 
which did away with the spinning-wheels of our 
great-grandmothers, and created the great industry 



10 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

of the cotton and woollen mills; the inventions for 
making steel that brought about the great steel 
mills, and enabled the armies of the world to use the 
great guns we know to-day, and the battleships to 
carry such heavy armour plate; the steam locomotive 
that enabled man to travel swiftly from one city to 
another; the steamship that brought all the nations 
close together; the telegraph, cable, telephone, and 
wireless, that made communication over any distance 
easy; the submarine that made war still more danger- 
ous; and finally the aeroplane that makes a highway 
of the air in which our earth revolves. 

But even from the time of the ancient Greeks and 
Romans man had tried to fly. Every nation had its 
list of martyrs who gave their lives to the cause of 
aviation. In modern times, too, many attempts had 
been made to discover the secret of flight. Otto 
Lilienthal, a German, called the "Flying Man/' had 
made important discoveries about air currents while 
gliding through the air from hills and walls by means 
of contrivances like wings fitted to his person. Others 
had made fairly successful gliders, and Prof. Samuel 
Pierepont Langley of the Smithsonian Institution 
in Washington actually had made a model aeroplane 
that flew for a short distance. Also, Clement Ader, 
a Frenchman, had sailed a short way in a power flier, 
and Sir Hiram Maxim, the English inventor, had 
built a gigantic steam-driven aeroplane that gave 
some evidences of being able to fly. But these men 



THE AEROPLANE 11 

were laughed at as cranks, while the Wrights kept 
their secret until they were sure of the success of 
their biplane. However, the question as to who first 
rode in a power-driven flier under the control of the 
operator still is the subject of a world-wide con- 
troversy. 

It w r as as boys that the Wright brothers first began 
experiments with flying, and though they have re- 
ceived the highest praises from the whole world, 
Orville still is, and until his death Wilbur was, the 
same quiet, modest man who made bicycles in 
Dayton, and the surviving brother of the pair is 
working harder than ever. In telling the story of 
their own early play, that later proved to be one 
of the most important things they ever did, the 
Wright brothers wrote for the Century Magazine: 
"We devoted so much of our attention to kite- 
flying that we were regarded as experts. But as 
we became older we had to give up the sport as 
unbecoming to boys of our age." As every boy 
knows, kite-flying was one of the early methods of 
experimenting with air currents and greatly aided 
the scientists in their exploration of the ocean of air 
that surrounds the world, eddying and swirling up 
and down, running smoothly and swiftly here, 
coming to a dead stop there — but always different 
from the minute before. 

But before the Wright brothers gave up flying 
kites they had played with miniature flying machines. 



12 THE BOYS BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

They were known then as "helicop teres," but 
the Wright brothers called them "bats," as the 
toys came nearer resembling bats than anything 
else the boys had seen about their home in Dayton, 
Ohio. Most boys probably have played with some- 
thing of the kind themselves, and maybe have made 
some. They were made of a light framework of 
bamboo formed into two screws driven in opposite 
directions by twisted rubber bands something like 
the motors on boys' model aeroplanes of to-day. 
When the rubber bands unwound the "bats" flew 
upw r ard. 

"A toy so delicate lasted only a short time in our 
hands," continues the story of the Wright brothers, 
"but its memory was abiding. We began building 
them ourselves,, making each one larger than that 
preceding. But the larger the 'bat' the less it flew. 
We did not know that a machine having only twice 
the size of another would require eight times the 
power. We finally became discouraged." 

This was aw r ay back in 1878, and it was not until 
1896 that the Wright brothers actually began the 
experiments that led to their world-famous success. 

Strangely enough it all started when Orville, the 
younger of the two, was sick with typhoid fever, 
the same disease that caused Wilbur Wright's death. 
According to all accounts, the elder brother, having 
remained away from their bicycle factory in order 
to nurse Orville, was reading aloud. Among other 




MOTOR OF THE WRIGHT BIPLANE 






H 






A 16-CYLINDER 100-HORSEPOWER ANTOINETTE MOTOR 

A frequent prize winner. 




AN 8-CYLINDER 50-HORSEPOWER CURTISS MOTOR 



THE GNOME MOTOR 




Standard Gnome aeroplane mo- 
tor, showing interior. 



Photo by Philip \V. Wilcox. 

Fourteen - cylinder 100 - horse- 
power Gnome motor. Used on 
many racing aeroplanes 




Courtesy of the Scientific American 



Testing a Gnome motor on a gun carriage. So great is the power of 
the engine that the tongue of the heavy carriage is buried in the ground 
to hold it in place 



THE AEROPLANE 13 

things he read to Orville the account of the tragic 
death of Otto Lilienthal, the German "Flying Man" 
who was killed while making a glide. 

"Why can't we make a glider that would be a 
success?" the brothers asked each other. They 
were sure they could, and they got so excited in 
talking it over that it nearly brought back Orville's 
fever. When he got well they studied aeronautics 
with the greatest care, approaching the subject with 
all the thoroughness that later made their name a by- 
word in aviation for care and deliberation. 

Neither of these two young men was over demon- 
strative, and neither was lacking in the ability for 
years and years of the hardest kind of work, but 
together they made an ideal team for taking up the 
invention of something that all the scientists of the 
world hitherto had failed to develop. Wilbur was 
called by those who knew him one of the most silent 
men that ever lived, as he never uttered a word unless 
he had something to say, and then he said it in the 
most direct and the briefest possible manner. He 
had an unlimited capacity for hard work, nerves of 
steel and the kind of daring that makes the aviator 
face death with pleasure every minute of the time 
he is in the air. 

No less daring is Orville, the younger of the two, 
who is a little bit more talkative and more full of 
enthusiasm than was Wilbur. He was the man the 
reporters always went to when they knew the elder 



14 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

brother would never say a word, and his geniality 
never failed them. He also is a true scientist and 
tireless in the work of developing the art of aviation. 

First, the brothers read all the learned and scientific 
books of Professor Langley, and Octave Chanute, the 
two first great American pioneers in aviation, and the 
reports of Lilienthal, Maxim, and the brilliant French 
scientists. 

They saw, as did Professor Langley, that it was 
out of the question to try to make a machine that 
would fly by moving its wings like a bird. Then 
they began w T ith great kites, and next made gliders 
— that is, aeroplanes without engines — for the 
brothers knew that there was no use in trying to 
make a machine-driven, heavier-than-air flier before 
they had tested out practically all the theories of the 
earlier scientists. 

They fashioned their gliders of two parallel main 
planes like those of Octave Chanute. The width, 
length, distance between planes, rudders, auxiliary 
planes and their placing were all problems for the 
most careful study. It was very discouraging 
work, for no big thing comes easily. As their ex- 
periments proceeded they said they found one rule 
after another incorrect, and they finally discarded 
most of the books the scientists had written. Then 
with characteristic patience they started in to work 
out the problem from first principles. "We had 
taken aeronautics merely as a sport," they wrote 



THE AEROPLANE 15 

later. "We reluctantly entered upon the scientific 
side of it. But we soon found the work so fascinat- 
ing that we were drawn into it deeper and deeper." 
The Wrights knew that an oblong plane — that is, 
a long narrow one — driven through the air broad- 
side first is more evenly supported by the air than 
would be a plane of the same area but square in shape. 
The reason for this is that the air gives the greatest 
amount of support to a plane at the entering edge, 
as it is called in aviation — that is, the edge where 
it is advancing into the air. A little way from the 
edge the air begins to slip off at the back and sides and 
the support decreases. Thus, it will be seen that 
if the rear surface, which gives little support because 
the air slips away from under it, is put at the sides, 
giving the plane a greater spread from tip to tip and 
not so much depth from front to rear, the plane is 
more efficient — that is, more stable, less subject to 
drifting, and better able to meet the varying wind 
currents. Scientists call this proportion of the 
spread to the depth the aspect ratio of planes. For 
instance, if a plane has a spread of 30 feet and a depth 
of 6 feet it is said to have an aspect ratio of 5. This 
is a very important consideration in the designing 
of an aeroplane, because aspect ratio is a factor in 
the speed. In general, high-speed machines have 
a smaller aspect ratio than slower ones. The aspect 
ratio also has an important bearing on the general 
efficiency of an aeroplane, but the lifting power of 



16 THE BOYS BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

a plane is figured as proportionate to its total area. 
In order to hold the air, and keep its supporting 
influence, aviators have tried methods of enclosing 
their planes like box kites, and putting edges on the 
under sides. This latter was found a mistake be- 
cause the edge tended to decrease the speed of the 
flier and did more harm than the good obtained 
through keeping the air. 

In aviation, as we know it to-day, aeroplane builders 
believe in giving their planes a slight arch upward 
and backward from the entering edge, letting it 
reach its highest point about one third of the way- 
back and then letting it slope down to the level of the 
rear edge gradually. This curve, which is called the 
camber, is mathematically figured out with the most 
painstaking care, and was one of the things the 
Wright brothers worked out very carefully in their 
early models. Also, planes are driven through the 
air at an angle — that is, with the entering edge 
higher than the rear edge — because the upward tilt 
gives the air current a chance to get under the 
plane and support it. This angle is called by the 
scientists the angle of incidence and is very impor- 
tant because of its relation to the lifting powers of 
the planes. 

Another one of the difficult problems the inventors 
had to struggle with was the balance of their fliers. 
Before the Wright brothers flew, it was thought that 
one of the best ways was to incline the planes up- 




A MODERN COLLEGE MAN'S GLIDER 




OTTO LILIENTHAL MAKING A FLIGHT IN HIS GLIDER 



THE AEROPLANE 17 

ward from the centre — that is — make them in the 
shape of a gigantic and very broad V. This is known 
in science as a dihedral angle. The idea was that 
the centre of gravity, or the point of the machine 
which is heaviest and which seeks to fall to earth 
first through the attraction of gravitation, should 
be placed immediately under the apex of the V, The 
scientists thought that the V then would keep the 
machine balanced as the hull of a ship is balanced 
in the water by the heavy keel at the bottom. The 
Wrights decided that this might be true from a 
scientific point of view, but that the dihedral angle 
kept the machine wobbling, first to one side and then 
righting itself, and then to the other side and right- 
ing itself. This was a practical fault and they built 
their flier without any attempt to have it right itself, 
but rather arched the planes from tip to tip as well 
as from front to rear. 

The winglike gliders of Lilienthal and Chanute had 
been balanced by the shifting of the operator's body, 
but the Wrights wanted a much bigger and safer 
machine than either of these pioneers had flown. 
In their own words, the Wrights "wished to employ 
some system whereby the operator could vary at will 
the inclination of different parts of the wings, and 
thus obtain from the wind forces to restore the bal- 
ance which the wind itself had disturbed. " This they 
later accomplished by a device for warping or 
bending their planes, but in their first glider there 



18 THE BOYS BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

was no warping device and the horizontal front 
rudder was the only controlling device used. This 
latter device on the first glider was made of a smaller 
plane, oblong-shaped and set parallel to, and in 
front of, the main planes. It was adjustable through 
the system of levers fixed for the operator, who in 
those days lay flat on the front plane. 

Thus the two main planes and the adjustable 
plane in front with stays, struts, etc., made up the 
first Wright glider. 

The Wright brothers took their machine to Kitty 
Hawk, N. C, in October, 1900, presumably for their 
vacation. They went there because the Government 
Weather Bureau told them that the winds blew 
stronger and steadier there than at any other point 
in the United States. Also it was lonely enough to 
suit the Wrights' desire for privacy. It was their 
plan to fly the contrivance like a boy does a huge 
box kite, and it looked something like one. A man, 
however, was to be aboard and operate the levers. 
According to the Wright brothers' story the winds 
were not high enough to lift the heavy kite with a 
man aboard, but it was flown without the operator 
and the levers worked from the ground by ropes. 

A new machine the next year showed little differ- 
ence of design, but the surface of the planes w r as 
greater. Still the flier failed to lift an operator. At 
this time the Wright brothers were working with 
Octave Chanute, the Chicago inventor, engineer and 



THE AEROPLANE 19 

scientist whom they had invited to Kitty Hawk to ad- 
vise them. After many discussions with Chanute they 
decided that they would learn the laws of aviation 
by their own experience and lay aside for a time the 
scientific data on the subject. 

They began coasting down the air from the tops 
of sand dunes, and after the first few glides were able 
to slide three hundred feet through the air against 
a wind blowing twenty-seven miles an hour. The 
reason their glider flights were made against the 
wind was because the wind passing swiftly under the 
planes had the same effect as if the machine was 
moving forward at a good clip, for the faster the 
machine moves, or the faster the air passes under it, 
the easier it remains aloft. In other words, no one 
part of the air was called upon to support the planes 
for any length of time, but each part supported the 
planes for a very short time. For instance, if you 
are skating on thin ice you run much less danger of 
breaking through if you skate very fast, because no 
one part of the ice is called upon to support you for 
long. 

In 1902 the Wright brothers were approaching 
their goal. Slowly and with rare patience they were 
accumulating and tabulating all the different things 
different kinds of planes would do under different 
circumstances. In the fall of that year they made 
about one thousand gliding flights, several of which 
carried them six hundred feet or more. Others 



20 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

were made in high winds and showed the inventors 
that their control devices were all right. 

The next year, 1903, which always will be re- 
membered as the banner one in the history of avia- 
tion, the brothers, confident that they were about 
to succeed in their long search for the secret of the 
birds, continued their soaring or gliding. Several 
times they remained aloft more than a minute, 
above one spot, supported by a high, steady wind 
passing under their planes. 

"Little wonder/' wrote the Wright brothers a 
few years, later, "that our unscientific assistant 
should think the only thing needed to keep it in- 
definitely in the air w^ould be a coat of feathers to 
make it light. " 

What the inventors did to keep their biplane glider 
in the air indefinitely, however, was to add several 
hundred pounds to the weight in the shape of a sixteen - 
horsepower gasoline motor. The total weight of the 
machine when ready to fly was 750 pounds. Every 
phase of the problem had been worked out in detail 
— all the calculations gone over and proved both by 
figures and by actual test. The planes, rudders, and 
propellers had been designed by mathematical cal- 
culations and practical tests. 

The main planes of this first machine had a spread 
from tip to tip of 40 feet, and measured 6 feet 
6 inches from the entering edge to the rear edge, 
a total area of 540 square feet. This will show how r 



THE AEROPLANE 21 

great is the spread of the main planes as compared 
to their length from front to rear. The two surfaces 
were set six feet apart, one directly above the other, 
while the elevating rudder was placed about ten 
feet in front of the machine on a flexible framework. 
This elevating rudder was composed of two parallel 
horizontal planes which together had an area of 
eighty square feet. The elevating planes could be 
moved up or down by the operator just as he desired 
to fly upward or downward. The machine was 
steered from right to left or left to right by two 
vertical vanes set at the rear of the machine about 
a foot apart. They were a little more than six feet 
long, extending from the upper supporting plane to a 
few inches below the lower supporting plane. These 
also were turned in unison by the operator, according 
to the direction toward which he wished to fly. 

The most intricate device of their machine, how- 
ever, was not perfected on their first biplane. This 
is the one for maintaining a side to side balance, or 
lateral equilibrium, as the scientists say. In watching 
the flights of gulls, hawks, eagles, and other soaring 
birds, the brothers had observed that the creatures, 
while keeping the main part of their wings rigid, 
frequently would bend the extreme tips of their 
wings ever so slightly, which would seem to straighten 
their bodies in the air. The inventor decided that 
they needed some such device as nature had given 
to these birds. 



22 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

The system was called by the scientists the tor- 
sional wing system, which means that the tip ends 
of the wings were flexible and could be warped or bent 
or curled up or down at will by the operator. Only 
the rear part of the tips of the wings on the Wright 
machines could be bent, but this was enough to 
keep the machine on an even keel when properly 
manipulated. How the Wright modern machines 
are operated is fully described on page (99). The 
whole machine was mounted on a pair of strong light 
wooden skids like skiis or sled-runners. 

To start the early Wright biplanes, the machines 
were placed on a monorail, along which they were 
towed by a cable. The force for towing them at 
sufficient speed was obtained by dropping from 
the top of a derrick built at the rear of the rail a 
ton of iron which was connected with the cable. 
The later Wright biplanes were equipped with 
rubber-tired wheels mounted on the framework, 
which still retained the skids. Heavy rubber springs 
were provided to absorb the shock. With the wheels 
the machine could run over the ground of its own 
power and thus the cumbersome derrick and monorail 
were done away with. 

The operator was supposed to lie on his face in 
the middle of the lower plane, but in the later machines 
a seat was provided for him alongside the engine, 
and in still later ones seats for one or two passengers. 

The engine which was designed by the Wright 



THE AEROPLANE 23 

brothers themselves for this purpose, was a water- 
cooled four-cylinder motor which developed sixteen 
horsepower from 1,020 revolutions per minute. The 
engine was connected with the propellers at the rear of 
the biplane by chains. The propellers were about 
eight feet in diameter and the blades w ere six to eight 
inches wide. The materials used in the biplane 
were mostly durable wood like spruce pine and ash, 
the metal in the engine and the canvas on the planes. 
There was not one superfluous wire. Everything 
had a use, and even the canvas was stretched diago- 
nally that it might fit more tightly over the framework 
of the planes and offer less wind resistance, and also 
stretch more easily for the wing warping. 

Finally on December 17, 1903, everything was in 
readiness for the first attempt of these two patient 
men — then unknown to the world — to fly in a 
power-driven machine. That first flight, made prac- 
tically in secret amid the desolate sand dunes of the 
North Carolina coast, lasted only twelve seconds. 
However, it w T as the first time, but one, in the history 
of the world that a machine carrying a man had 
lifted itself from the ground and flown entirely by 
its own power. 

The two succeeding flights were longer, and the 
fourth covered 853 feet, lasting fifty-nine seconds. 

The inventors were not heralded as the greatest 
men of their time. There were no medals or speeches. 
The five men — fishermen and life savers — who saw 



24 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

the flights agreed that it was wonderful, but they 
kept the Wrights' secret and the brothers calmly 
continued their studies and experiments. 

The spring of 1904 found them at work on Huff- 
man Prairie about eight miles east of Dayton. The 
first trials there were not very successful and the 
brothers, who had worked seven long years in secret, 
had the unpleasant experience of failing to show 
satisfactory results to the few friends and reporters 
invited to see an aeroplane flight. Their new ma- 
chine was larger, heavier, and stronger, but the 
engine failed to work properly. 

Of course this was no great disappointment to 
those two silent, determined young men. "We are 
not circus performers," they said. "Our aim is to 
advance the science of aviation." 

And advance it they did. 

Their experiments continued, and in 1904 they 
made a record of three miles in 5 minutes 27 seconds. 
The next year, 1905, they made a record flight of 
24.20 miles and remained in the air 38 minutes 13 
seconds at heights of from 75 to 100 feet. 

All this time the brothers were solving problems 
and correcting faults, but in 1904 and 1905 their chief 
endeavour was to keep their machines from tipping 
side wise when they turned. Only the most techni- 
cal study and the final development of their wing- 
warping device solved the problem. 

Perhaps the strangest part was the lack of interest 



THE AEROPLANE 25 

shown in their work by the world and even by their 
own townsmen, for, though there had been several 
newspaper accounts of their test flights, no great 
enthusiasm was aroused. 

They were not wealthy and they had spent more 
on their experiments than they could afford, so all 
this time they had proceeded without attracting 
any more attention than necessary. They desired 
to perfect their patents before letting the world know 
the secret of their inventions, and spent the next 
two years in business negotiations. Meanwhile, the 
French inventors were making much progress and 
soon brought out several successful aeroplanes. 

Why was this? 

Why was it that the art of air navigation sought by 
man since the earliest times should have been dis- 
covered and mastered so quickly? 

The answer lies in the putting together of two 
things by the Wright brothers — that is, their dis- 
covery of the kind of a plane that would stay aloft 
with the air passing under it at a swift enough clip 
to give it support, and their adaptation of the gas- 
oline engine to the use of driving the plane for- 
ward with enough speed. 

When they began work, the gasoline engine was 
just coming to its real development. It was light, 
developed a high power, and its fuel could be con- 
centrated into a small space. These things were essen- 
tial to the success of the aeroplane — light weight, 



26 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

high power, and concentrated fuel. And these were 
things that the early inventors lacked. Sir Hiram 
Maxim equipped his machine with a steam engine, 
while Langley used steam engines in most of his 
models. These were very heavy, cumbersome, gave 
slight power in comparison to their weight, and could 
carry only a little fuel with them. 

Undoubtedly the adaptation of the gasoline engine 
to the use of the aeroplane marked the difference 
between mechanical flight and no flight, but it 
also is not to be doubted that those aviators, who are 
more mechanical than scientific, have overrated the 
importance of the engine in aeroplane construction. 
Before engines ever were used, the Chanute type 
of biplane had to be worked into a state of reliabil- 
ity, if not perfection. Now the scientific leaders in 
aviation are giving every bit as much attention to 
the perfection of their planes, their gliding possibili- 
ties, and the scientific rules governing their action 
as they are to their engines. 

Most boys understand, at least generally, how an 
automobile or motor-boat engine works. Scientists 
call gasoline engines "internal combustion motors," 
and that means that the force is gathered from the 
explosion of the gasoline vapour in the cylinder. 
Enough gasoline to supply fuel to run an aeroplane 
motor for as much as eight or nine hours can be 
carried in the tank. From the tank a small pipe 
carries the gasoline to a device called the carbu- 



THE AEROPLANE 27 

reter. The carbureter turns the gasoline into gas 
by spraying it and mixing it with air, for gasoline 
turns into a very inflammable and explosive gas 
when mixed with the oxygen in the air. So this 
gas, if lighted in a closed space, will explode. The 
explosion takes place in the motor-cylinder by the 
application of an electric spark, and the force pushes 
the piston, which turns the crank and drives the 
aeroplane propeller, automobile wheels, or motor- 
boat screw. 

Thus we have the piston driven out and creating 
the first downward thrust, but the thrusts must be 
continuous. The piston must be drawn back to the 
starting place, the vapours of the exploded gas ex- 
pelled, and the new gas admitted to the cylinder 
ready for the next explosion. On the ordinary four- 
cycle motor two complete revolutions of the flywheel 
are necessary to do all the work. First, we must have 
the explosion that causes the initial thrust; second, 
the return of the piston rod in the cylinder by the 
momentum of the flywheel as it revolves from the 
initial thrust, thus forcing out the burned gas of the 
first explosion; third, the next downward motion to 
suck in a fresh supply of gas; and, fourth, the next 
upward thrust to compress it for the second explo- 
sion. It sounds simple enough, but it isn't, as every 
one knows who has tried to run a gasoline motor for 
himself. 

The carbureter must do its work automatically 



28 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

and convert the air and gasoline into gas in just the 
right proportions. A slight fault with the feed of 
gasoline or air would cause trouble. Also the 
electric-spark system that ignites the gas and causes 
the explosions must be in perfect running order. The 
explosions cause great heat, so some system of cool- 
ing the cylinders either by air or water must be used. 

Only one cylinder has been explained here, but 
most engines have several, each working at a differ- 
ent stage, so that the power is exerted on the shaft 
continuously. For instance, take a four-cylinder 
engine; on the instant that the first cylinder is ex- 
ploding and driving the shaft, the second cylinder is 
compressing gas for the next explosion, the third is 
getting a fresh supply of gas, and the fourth is clean- 
ing out the waste gas of the explosion of a second 
before. Thus it will be seen why the explosions are 
almost constant. 

Now think of the aeroplane motor that has fourteen 
cylinders and develops 140 horsepower! This is 
probably the most powerful aeroplane engine in the 
world, although there are many motor boats that 
have engines developing 1,000 horsepower. 

In the early days when scientists were groping for 
the secret of air navigation the best that the clumsy 
steam engines they had at their disposal would do 
was to generate one horsepower of energy for every 
ten pounds of weight. These days the light power- 
ful aeroplane engines we hear roaring over our heads 



THE AEROPLANE 29 

are generating one horsepower of energy for every 
three or three and a half pounds of dead weight, and 
engines have been constructed weighing only one 
pound to every horsepower, though they are im- 
practical for general use. 

The first engines that were used in aeroplanes were 
simply automobile engines adapted to air navigation. 
The main question in those days was lightness and 
power. This was achieved by skimming down the 
best available automobile engines so that they were 
as light as safety would allow. 

Although lightness is still an important factor in 
aeroplane engine construction, many authorities 
declare that it is growing less so as the science 
advances and aeroplanes are able to carry heavier 
loads. 

There were many intricate and difficult problems, 
however, that attended taking a motor aloft to drive 
an aeroplane. The motor had to run at top speed 
every second, for it could not rest on a low gear 
as an automobile engine could. First one part and 
then another would give out and the motors were con- 
stantly overheating. Experience taught the makers 
how to make their machines light enough and yet 
strong enough to do the required work. 

It was in cooling that the greatest difficulties were 
met, and it was this that brought about the great 
innovations in motor building. The system of cool- 
ing the engine with water required much heavy 



30 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

material, such as pipes, pumps, water, water jackets, 
and radiator. 

On account of the general efficiency of a water- 
cooled engine many builders of aeroplanes stuck 
to it and developed it to a very high standard. 
At present many of the prize-winning engines 
are water cooled, as, for instance, the Wright and 
Curtiss. 

All of these w T ater-cooled engines and several 
standard air-cooled makes are of the reciprocating 
type that have stationary cylinders and crankcase 
while the crankshaft rotates like that of the motor 
boat. 

The famous Curtiss, Anzani, Renault, and others 
are all engines of this type. They all differ, but all 
have a high capacity, as we know from the records 
they have broken. The Anzani and R. E. P. makers, 
whose motors are air cooled, have used to great ad- 
vantage the plan of making their motors star-shaped 
— that is, with the cylinders arranged in a circle 
around the crankshaft. 

This is the shape taken by the famous air-cooled 
rotary engines of which the much-discussed Gnome 
is the best known make. In this rotary motor the 
cylinders and crankcase revolve about the crank- 
shaft which is stationary. Authorities are divided 
over the Gnome, which has many severe critics as well 
as many enthusiastic supporters. Its lightness is 
certainly an advantage. The ordinary Gnome has 



THE AEROPLANE 31 

seven cylinders and develops fifty horsepower while 
the newest models have fourteen cylinders and de- 
velop 100 and 140 horsepower. 

A brief description of the motor here will suffice 
to show the general principle of the rotary engine. 
The stationary crankshaft is hollow, and through it 
the gasoline vapour passes from the carbureter at the 
rear to the cylinders. Of course the inlet valves in the 
pistons are made to work automatically. The 
magneto is also placed behind the motor and the 
segments revolve on the crankcase. Wires extend 
from the segments to the spark plugs in the cylinders, 
and revolve with them. The cylinders are turned 
out of solid steel and the whole engine is conceded 
by experts to be one of the most wonderfully in- 
genious ever built. The cylinders and crankcase 
themselves serve as flywheel, thereby eliminating the 
dead weight of the usual heavy flywheel in the other 
types of motors, and the rotation serves to cool the 
engine perfectly. Again, the rotary motor is light 
and small, while it develops a tremendously high 
power. Aviators also claim for it other advantages 
too technical for consideration here. 

Many authorities, in fact, declare that the rotary 
engine is the aeroplane motor of the future. It is 
very popular among the French aviators and at pres- 
ent holds a great many speed records. It was with one 
of these high-power Gnomes that Claude Grahame- 
White, the English flier, won the Gordon Bennett race 



32 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

at Belmont Park in the fall of 1910, and Weyman 
again in England in 1911. 

While this high state of development in the aero- 
plane motor has been attained comparatively within 
a few years, the art of flying has occupied the mind 
of man since it was described in Greek mythology. 
The Chinese for thousands of years have used kites 
and balloons. The ancient Greeks w r atched the won- 
derful flights of the birds and invented myths about 
men who were able to fly. Then Achytes, his mind 
fired by these stories, invented a device in the form of a 
wooden dove which was propelled by heated air. 
Other inventors made devices that were intended to 
fly, and during the reign of Nero, "Simon the Magi- 
cian" held the world's first aviation meet in Rome. 
According to the account, he "rose into the air through 
the assistance of demons." It further states that St. 
Peter stopped the action of the demons by a prayer, 
and that Simon was killed in the resultant fall. Simon 
made another record that way by being the first 
man to be killed in an aeronautical accident. Other 
records show that Baldud, one of the early tribal 
kings in what later was named England, tried to fly 
over a city, but fell and was killed. A little later, in 
the eleventh century, a Benedictine monk made him- 
self a pair of wings, jumped from a high tower and 
broke his legs. These wings really were rude gliders 
and the principle remained in the minds of men, even 
in those days when their chief occupation was war. 




Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution 

THE CHANUTE TYPE GLIDER 

Upon this machine was based the invention of the biplane 

«b t™_ „J(K 




H 



Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution 

THE HERRING GLIDER 

Based on the idea of the Lilienthal gliders 





' 


M 




ijyi 




HE 


■ i ~ ' - 




&s I 








',. 1 


xv-jn 





























AN EARLY HELICOPTER 
An idea that was abandoned before the aeroplane became a reality 



! 

< 



O 



H 
< 







THE AEROPLANE 33 

According to the legends, a man named Oliver of 
Malmesburg, who lived during the Middle Ages, 
built himself a glider and soared for 375 feet. 

It was in the fifteenth century that men first began 
to make flying a scientific study by making records 
and, in part at least, tabulating the results of their 
experiments. 

Among these early students of the science were 
Leonardo da Vinci, who is best known to the world 
as a painter and sculptor, but who was a great 
engineer and architect of his time, and Jean Baptiste 
Dante, a brother of the great poet. Although Da 
Vinci was the more scientific in his experiments, 
Dante made greater progress, and it is on record 
that he made many wonderful flights with a glider 
of his own construction over Lake Trasimene. He 
launched his glider from a cliff into the teeth of the 
wind, showing thereby his knowledge of the fact that 
a glider works best when flown against a high wind, 
because in that way the air is passing under it at 
greater speed. In one flight he made about 800 
feet, which would be a fine record for any glider 
manipulated by an expert to-day. Finally Dante 
attempted an exhibition at Perugia, at the marriage 
festival of a celebrated general, fell on the roof of the 
Notre Dame Church and broke one of his legs. 

Da Vinci had three different schemes for human 
flight. One was the old idea of bird flight, first 
dreamed of by the Greeks when Ovid wrote the poem 



34 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

of "Daedalus and Icarus." Scientists called the 
machine that Da Vinci proposed an orthopter and the 
operator was supposed by the movement of both 
arms and legs to fly by flapping the wings. Needless 
to say it did not work, and we know to-day that bird 
flight by wing flapping is probably impossible for man. 
Another of Da Vinci's ideas is still being worked upon 
by some inventors. This was a machine known as 
the helicopter, which was supposed to fly upward by 
the twisting of a great horizontal screw ninety-six 
feet in diameter. The idea was just the same as 
that of the toy that started the Wright brothers to 
thinking. The trouble with Da Vinci's machine 
was that he had no power to run it. Boys in play- 
ing with toy helicopters to-day can run them with 
rubber bands, but Da Vinci had to turn his screw 
by human power. Little was accomplished with 
this machine, although Da Vinci showed its prac- 
ticability with models. The third scheme of this 
Italian scientist is one that many years later was 
perfected and demonstrated at every county fair — 
that is, the parachute. The first parachute was 
very crude, but it soon was developed to a fairly 
high stage of effectiveness and men came down 
from the tops of towers in them without much 
injury. 

Again, in 1742, the Marquis de Bacqueville, then 
sixty-two years old, made a contrivance with which 
he flew about nine hundred feet before he fell into 



THE AEROPLANE 35 

a boat in the Seine River and broke his leg. The 
Marquis had announced in advance that he would 
fly from his great house in Paris, across the Seine 
River and land in the famous Garden of the Tuileries . 
A crowd assembled and marvelled when the nobleman 
sailed into the teeth of the wind supported by what 
apparently were great wings. Something went wrong 
after a flight that would be considered remarkable 
by a scientific glider to-day, and his fall resulted 
in a broken leg for the experimenter. According to 
the authorities, all these experiments were not very 
valuable to science, because while the flights were 
accurately described the construction of the fliers 
(except in the case of Leonardo da Vinci) was not 
given, or only indicated in the most uncertain and 
unscientific language. 

In 1781 a French scientist named Blanchard at- 
tempted to make a flying machine of which the man 
driving it was to be the power. He was still working 
with it when ballooning became known, and he took 
up that sport with avidity. 

At that point came the true division between 
heavier-than-air and lighter-than-air machines. Be- 
fore 1783 many scientists had hinted at the prac- 
ticability of a hot air or gas balloon, but all successful 
flying experiments had been made with what we 
suppose to have been some form of gliders. How- 
ever, in 1783 Tiberius Cavallo, an Italian scientist 
living in London, made a small hydrogen balloon, 



36 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

and was followed by the manufacture of fairly suc- 
cessful balloons by the Montgolfier brothers, two 
French inventors. 

From that time ballooning, with which this chap- 
ter has no concern, made rapid strides, until to-day 
the balloon has reached the stage where great motor- 
driven balloons are used by the European armies, and 
also to carry passengers. 

The next step in the heavier-than-air machine, 
known these days as the aeroplane, was taken in 
1810, by Sir George Cayley, an Englishman and a 
true scientist, who constructed a glider and tabulated 
much valuable information. It was this scientist 
who made the first conclusive demonstrations look- 
ing toward the proof that man can never fly like a 
bird, but must proceed upon the principle of sustained 
planes. Sir George set down many laws of equilib- 
rium governing the control of flying machines, 
estimated the power necessary to carry a man, and 
even hinted at the possibility of a gas engine more 
powerful and lighter than the then crude steam 
engine. He declared that a plane driven through 
the air, and inclined upward at a slight angle, would 
tend to rise and support a weight, and also that a tail 
with horizontal and vertical vanes would tend to 
steady the machine and enable the pilot to steer 
it up or down. 

This, it will be seen, was a very close approach to 
the idea of the aeroplane as we know it to-day. It 




Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution 

LANGLEY'S STEAM MODEL 

This tandem monoplane made several successful trial flights 




THE MAXIM AEROPLANE 

Maxim's great machine was claimed as the first successful aeroplane* 

In trials it rose a few inches off the ground 








MEDALS WON BY THE WRIGHT BROTHERS 

Top, Langley medal bestowed by the Smithsonian Institution; bot- 
tom, medal authorized by Act of Congress 



THE AEROPLANE 37 

remained for another British inventor, by the name of 
Henson, to carry these ideas to a further development, 
and with his 'colleague, F. Stringfellow, he worked 
out a model that embodied most of the principles 
of the present-day flier of the monoplane type. They 
! decided the proper proportion for the width and 
length of the plane and steadied their machine with 
both horizontal and perpendicular rudders. In 1844 
Henson and Stringfellow built a model of their aero- 
plane and equipped it with a small steam engine. 
A subsequently constructed steam-propelled model 
made a free flight of forty yards. This is claimed 
to be the first flight of a power-driven machine, al- 
though it was only a model. In 1866 F. H. Wenham, 
another Englishman, took out a patent on an aero- 
plane made up of two or more planes, or, as the 
scientists call it, two or more superposed surfaces. 
Immediately following this, Stringfellow constructed 
a steam-propelled model of triplane type, but it was 
no more successful than his monoplane. This latest 
model may be seen in the Smithsonian Institution 
at Washington to-day along with other models mark- 
ing the progress of aeroplanes. 

In the years following other inventors contributed 
much valuable information to the data concerning 
aviation. Among these was Warren Hargrave, the 
Australian, who had discovered the box kite, and 
who had seen in it the principle for the aeroplane. 
Hargrave even built a small monoplane weighing 



38 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

about three pounds and propelled by compressed air, 
which flew 128 feet in eight seconds. 

Though the Wright brothers were the first to make 
a practical man-carrying, power-propelled aeroplane, 
they were not the first men to be carried off the 
ground by such a machine. The first man admitted 
by most authorities to have flown in a power-driven 
aeroplane was Clement Ader, a Frenchman, who had 
spent his life in the study of air navigation. His 
first machine was of monoplane type driven by a 
forty-horsepow r er steam engine. It was called the 
Eole and it had its first test before a few of the in- 
ventor's friends near the town of Gretz on October 
9, 1890, making, according to witnesses, a free flight 
of 150 feet. Ader built tw r omore machines in subse- 
quent years and succeeded in interesting the French 
military authorities. In October of 1897 he made sev- 
eral secret official tests of his last machine, the Avion. 
It had a spread of 270 square feet, weighed 1,100 
pounds, and was driven by a forty-horsepower steam 
engine. The day for the trial was squally but he per- 
severed. The flier ran at high speed over the ground, 
several times lifted its wheels clear off its track 
and finally turned over, smashing the machine. The 
officials did not consider the exhibition successful, 
and the support of the army was withdrawn. Ader 
in disgust gave the Avion to a French museum and 
abandoned aviation, with success almost within his 
grasp. 



THE AEROPLANE 39 

Shortly before this time Prof. Samuel Pierpont 
Langley of the Smithsonian Institution and Octave 
Chanute, the great American pioneers in aviation, 
were making their early experiments. Professor 
Langley experimented with numerous kinds of model 
fliers, and finally, on May 6, 1896, launched a steam- 
propelled model over the Potomac River. According 
to the scientist Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, who 
was present, it flew between 80 and 100 feet and then 
" settled down so softly and gently that it touched the 
water without the least shock, and was in fact im- 
mediately ready for another trial." The second 
test was equally successful. The speed was between 
twenty and twenty-five miles an hour and the distance 
flown about 3,000 feet. Professor Langley's first 
aerodrome, as he called it (the word is now used to 
mean aviation field), was made in the form of a 
tandem monoplane about sixteen feet long from end 
to end and with wings measuring about thirteen feet 
from tip to tip. The steam engine and propellers 
were placed between the forward and aft planes. 
The whole machine weighed about thirty pounds and 
of course was too small to carry a pilot. 

Langley next made a model which took the form 
of a tandem biplane, and which had some success 
in flights. When the Government appropriated $50,- 
000 for him to build an aerodrome that would carry 
a man, Langley began to experiment with a gasoline 
engine. He used his tandem biplane and a motor 



40 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

that developed two and a half to three horsepower. 
The whole machine weighed fifty-eight pounds, and 
the planes, which were set at a dihedral angle, had 
sixty-six square feet of surface. A successful test with- 
out a pilot was made on the Potomac River below 
Washington on August 8, 1903, and while the spec- 
tators and reporters were lauding him the inventor 
merely remarked : "This is the first time in history, so 
far as I know, that a successful flight of a mechanically 
sustained flying machine has been seen in public." 
The man-carrying machine was ready for its tests 
a few months later. Ever since having been financed 
by the Government, Langley had been at work, and 
the result was a tandem monoplane much like his 
early models. It was driven by a gasoline motor 
placed amidships which acted on twin screw propel- 
lers, which also were between the tandem planes. 
The whole machine with the pilot weighed 830 
pounds, and had 1,040 square feet of wing surface. 
It was fifty-two feet long from front to rear and the 
wings measured forty-eight feet from tip to tip. 
The wings were arched, like those of modern aero- 
planes, and the double rudder at the rear had both 
horizontal and vertical surfaces to steer the machine 
up or down, or from right to left. The aerodrome 
did not have any device for keeping it on an even 
keel, such as the ailerons we know to-day, or the 
wing-warping system of the Wright machine. This 
was a serious drawback, according to the present-day 



THE AEROPLANE 41 

scientists, but Professor Langley had set his wings in 
a dihedral angle — that is, like a broad V, to give what 
is called automatic stability. This dihedral angle, 
it will be remembered, is one of the principles dis- 
carded by the Wright brothers early in their experi- 
ments as one that tended to keep the machine 
oscillating from side to side. Professor Langley 
realized this, it is said, and to offset it had already 
advanced several ideas along the line of wing warp- 
ing, for keeping his machine on an even keel when 
buffeted by the wind. 

The aerodrome also lacked the wheels now used 
on aeroplanes for starting and alighting, and even 
the skids that were used on the first Wright machines. 
His motor was remarkably well adapted to the work. 
It developed 50 horsepower with a minimum of 
vibration, and with its radiator, water, pump, tanks, 
carbureter, batteries, and coil weighed twenty pounds, 
or about five pounds per horsepower. The arrange- 
ment of the five cylinders around the shaft like the 
points of a star was one that has become very popular 
in modern aviation motors. 

The first trial took place at Widewater, Va., on 
September 7, 1903. The machine was placed on a 
barge on the Potomac River; the pilot, Charles 
M. Manley, Professor Langley's able young assistant, 
took his seat in the little boat amidships, and a 
catapult arrangement, like the early Wright starting 
device, sent it into the air. To the bitter disappoint- 



42 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

ment of Langley and his friends the machine dived 
into the water. It came up immediately, the daring 
Manley undaunted and uninjured. Investigation 
showed that in launching it the post that held the 
guys which steadied the front wings had been so 
bent that the forward planes were useless. 

At the next trial, December 8, the rear guy post 
was injured in a similar accident and the machine 
fell over backward. This ended the experiments, 
as the Government appropriation had been spent, 
and the machine was repaired and stored in the 
Smithsonian Institution, where it is yet. 

Professor Langley died a few years after this, 
feeling that his great work had never been appre- 
ciated or understood by the world. Many have 
declared that he died of a broken heart as a result 
of the frequent ridicule of the public and press. Al- 
though he never saw the triumph of aerial navigation, 
he died firm in the belief that it was only a matter 
of time and the working out of theories then laid 
down until man could fly. His last hours were 
cheered by the receipt of a copy of resolutions of 
appreciation passed by the Aero Club of America. 

In the meantime, the Frenchman Ader had actually 
flown in a power-driven machine of his own con- 
struction, at private tests, while Captain Le Bris 
and L. P. Mouillard, Frenchmen, and Otto Lilien- 
thal, a German, had been carrying on important 
glider flights. Also Sir Hiram Maxim, the American- 



THE AEROPLANE 43 

born inventor who was knighted in England, made 
a great aeroplane that was tested with some success. 
The machine was built in 1889 and was mounted on 
a track. It was called a multiplane — that is, it had 
several planes, one above the other, and was driven 
by a powerful steam engine. The whole machine 
weighed three and a half tons and had a total surface 
of 5,500 square feet. During its tests on the track it 
lifted a few inches off the ground. Thus Maxim 
claimed that his was the first machine that had ever 
lifted a man off the ground by its own power. 

It was Otto Lilienthal, however, the "flying man," 
who established a systematic study of one phase 
of aviation which became general enough to be called 
the Lilienthal School. This was the system of 
practising on gliders before attempting to go into 
the air with power-driven machines. As will be 
remembered, this was exactly the system the Wright 
brothers followed out. 

Lilienthal's first experiments were made in 1891 
with a pair of semicircular wings steadied by a 
horizontal rudder at the rear. The whole apparatus 
weighed forty pounds and had a total plane surface 
of 107 square feet. He would run along the ground 
and jump from the top of a hill. He made many 
good flights, and in 1893 with a new glider aver- 
aged 200 to 300 yards and steered up or down 
or to either side at will. Lilienthal found that the 
air flowing along the earth's surface had a slightly 



44 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

upward current, as science tells us it does, and 
it would carry him upward if the wind was blowing 
strong enough. Hence he could go forward either 
up or down in about the same way that a yacht tacks 
against the wind. But Lilienthal had the same 
trouble in balancing that the Wright brothers had 
at first, so he kept an even keel as best he could by 
swinging his legs and body from side to side as he 
hung underneath the glider. 

The "flying man" made about 2,000 flights and 
then constructed a still more successful biplane 
glider for which he built an engine. He was killed 
while making a glide on August 9, 1896, however, 
and the motor was never used. Several authorities 
who were in touch with Lilienthal declared that the 
machine had become wobbly and unreliable. This, 
they said, was the cause of its collapsing in midair 
under the heavy strain. 

Lilienthal's death, though mourned by scientists 
all over the world, did not interfere with the great 
work he had started, for his system had many dis- 
ciples both in Europe and America. Among these, 
besides the Wrights, were the x4mericans Octave 
Chanute and A. M. Herring, and Percy S. Pilcher 
of the University of Glasgow. Pilcher was killed 
three years after Lilienthal, September 30, 1899, 
while trying to make a glide in stormy weather. 

Great credit must be given to Chanute because it 
was in great part through his advice that the Wright 




THE FIRST SANTOS-DUMONT AEROPLANE 

This was the first successful aeroplane to be flown in Europe, and was 
quickly followed by others 




THE CROSS-CHANNEL TYPE BLERIOT MONOPLANE 

The Bleriot monoplane was the first of the monoplane type to make a 

success in Europe 




A VOISIN BIPLANE 

The Voisin brothers perfected the first permanent aeroplane used in 
Europe. Henri Farman made his first wonderful Rights in a Voisin 




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THE AEROPLANE 45 

brothers achieved final success, and all biplanes 
to-day are known to the technical side of the avia- 
tion world as Chanute type machines. Chanute 
and Herring started experiments with gliders among 
the sand dunes on the southern shore of Lake Michi- 
gan, and, after some indifferent success with the Lili- 
enthal monoplane type of glider, made a flier of five 
surfaces one above the other. The rudder was in 
the rear and the pilot hung below the machine. 
One by one experiments pared down the number 
of planes to three and then to two. The planes were 
arched, as they are in modern aeroplanes. The 
rudder extended behind the contrivance and had 
both horizontal and vertical blades. The whole ma- 
chine weighed 23 pounds and had 135 square feet of 
plane surface. 

The biplane was eminently satisfactory and Her- 
ring decided to make an engine for it and sail in a 
power-driven flier — or a dynamic aeroplane, as 
the scientists call it. His motor was a compressed 
air machine and he proposed to go into the air as if 
for a glide and then start the engine. According 
to newspaper accounts, he accomplished this and his 
compressed air engine drove him forward seventy- 
three feet in eight or ten seconds against a strong 
breeze. The flight was not given very much con- 
sideration, however, for lack of authoritative wit- 
nesses. 

This brings us around again to the activities of 



46 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

the Wright brothers, who started their work with 
the glider built along the lines laid down by Octave 
Chanute. They had the active support and aid of 
this inventor throughout their three or four years of 
experiments, although many other scientists were in- 
clined to discredit their work. 

While the brothers were going ahead with their 
practical flier the European scientists were develop- 
ing with rapid strides and Prof. John J. Montgomery of 
Santa Clara College, Santa Clara, Cal., who was killed 
in a glider accident in 1911, was astonishing the far 
West with gliding experiments of great importance. 

Montgomery's best glider was a tandem mono- 
plane with a device by which the pilot could change 
at will the amount of curvature of any of the wings. 
This gave him the tremendous advantage of being 
able to vary the lifting power of the wings indepen- 
dently of each other and hence a means of maintaining 
side to side balance. Professor Montgomery made 
his own flights until injuring his leg in alighting, 
and then he hired trained aeronauts to glide from 
great heights. As it turned out it would have been 
better had he never resumed flying himself. He used 
balloons to carry up the gliders and when they reached 
the required altitude the operator cut the cable. 
Daniel Maloney, a daring parachute jumper, and 
two other aeronauts, named Wilkie and Defolco, car- 
ried on these hair-raising experiments. 

Flights were made at Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, 



THE AEROPLANE 47 

San Jose, Oakland, and Sacramento, in 1905. The 
balloon would take up the aeroplane, and aviator, 
who sat on a saddle like a bicycle seat between the 
tandem planes and manipulated the wing control 
and rear rudder with hand levers and a pair of stir- 
rups for his feet. In April of that year a forty -five- 
pound glider, such as the one described, with Maloney 
in the seat, was taken up four thousand feet. When 
the aviator cut loose he glided to earth, making evolu- 
tions never before made by man in the air, and finally 
landed as lightly as a feather on a designated spot. 

Shortly afterward Maloney while making a sen- 
sational glide was killed. As the balloon was rising 
with the aeroplane, a guy rope switched around 
the right wing and broke the post that braced the 
two rear wings and which also gave control over the 
tail. Those below shouted to Maloney that the 
machine was broken, but he probably did not hear, 
and when he cut loose the machine turned turtle. 

One of the saddest of all the many aeroplane fatal- 
ities was the accident early in the fall of 1911, in 
which Professor Montgomery was killed while ex- 
perimenting with his glider. 

Thus we see that the pioneers whose work has 
counted for the most in the early history of aviation 
were Americans — that the science can almost be 
claimed as a development of American genius. True, 
Ader was the first man to fly in a power-propelled 
machine, and Lilienthal led the way in the science 



48 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

of gliding, but it remained for Chanute, Langley, 
Montgomery, and the Wright brothers to gather all 
this scientific data together and put it to practical use 
so that the motor could be installed and power 
flight, or dynamic flight, as the scientists call it, 
begun. 



CHAPTER II 
AEROPLANE DEVELOPMENT 

HOW THE INVENTORS CARRIED ON THE ART OF AVIA- 
TION UNTIL IT BECAME THE GREATEST OF ALL 
SPORTS AND THEN A GREAT INDUSTRY 

SO INTERESTED in aviation had our young 
friend become that he forgot all other 
inventions in his enthusiasm for flying. He 
never missed a chance to go to the aviation field, 
and sometimes his scientist friend would go with 
him. These days were rare treats indeed, for the 
boy always learned some new and important points 
from their conversations. 

With them we have seen how the science of aero- 
nautics has been divided into two great depart- 
ments: balloons, or lighter-than-air fliers, and all 
other machines that are not maintained in the air by 
hot air or gas. We have seen also the three great divi- 
sions of heavier-than-air aviation — that is, orthopters 
or wing-flapping machines; helicopters or machines 
that fly upward through the operation of horizontal 
screws; and aeroplanes. Lastly we see the three 
divisions of aeroplanes : gliders; dynamic aeroplanes, 

49 



50 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

or the machines we know to-day; and true bird 
soaring, the art of flying without artificial power and 
without the flapping of wings. 

But on every side the boy heard people talking 
of great feats of flying that he knew nothing about. 

"Who was Santos-Dumont? What was that first 
trans-Channel flight? Why do they always talk 
about the first Rheims meet?" he asked one after- 
noon as he was returning home from the field with 
the scientist. 

The man could not answer the questions all in 
one breath, but we will follow his explanation, which 
extended over many pleasant hours, and see how 
aviation developed into a mighty sport and industry. 

For several years following 1905 the world of avia- 
tion was led by Europeans — mostly Frenchmen who 
readily grasped the principles of the science and made 
the best and lightest motors that the world has ever 
seen. The United States, however, was the first 
nation to experiment with aeroplanes for military 
purposes, although at present the country is far 
behind France, England, and Germany in the dev 1- 
opment of aeroplanes for use in war. 

Alberto Santos-Dumont, a daring young Brazilian 
who a few years earlier had astounded the world with 
his achievements with dirigible balloons, was the 
first of the aviators working in Europe to construct 
a practical man-carrying power flier. Scores of 
brilliant foreigners were working on the principles 






AEROPLANE DEVELOPMENT 51 

for gliders laid down by Lilienthal, but Santos- 
Dumont, working along the ideas of the scientists 
who had built power-propelled models, made him- 
self a clumsy biplane equipped with a 50-horse- 
power motor and actually inaugurated public flights, 
considering that all done by the Wrights up to that 
time was experimental and practically in secret. 

On August 22, 1906, he made his first flight near 
Paris. It was brief, but authorities agree that it 
was the first time in Europe that a power-propelled 
flier had risen in free flight with a man at the steer- 
ing wheel since Ader's secret flight in 1892. Two 
months later he made a public flight of 221 metres 
in 21 seconds, winning the world's first regularly 
offered aviation prize. This was the Archdeacon 
Cup of 2,000 francs authorized by the Aero Club 
of France for a flight of 100 metres. 

Scientists gave these flights more attention than 
they did the flights of the Wright brothers the year 
before because they were viewed by many thousands 
of people and also by men who had studied the science 
of aviation for years. Besides this, Santos-Dumont 
made no secret of the construction or workings of 
his machine as the Wright brothers did. He was 
already a popular idol through his work with dirigible 
balloons, and being very rich — the son of a million- 
aire plantation owner in Brazil — he did not have 
the same financial incentive for keeping his plans 
secret. 



52 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

His flights gave the aviators of France tremendous 
encouragement and it was but a short time until 
half a dozen aeroplanes, the makes of which are all 
well known now, were making successful flights and 
breaking records. 

Santos-Dumont called his biplane an aeromobile. 
The two main planes had perpendicular surfaces 
enclosing them so that the wings of each side looked 
like two box kites hitched together side by side, as 
shown in the picture. The rudder extended to the 
front and it also looked like a box kite. The pilot 
sat just in front of the wings and could manipulate 
his rudder from side to side or up and down. Thus 
he could steer his machine from right to left, upward 
or downward. The Brazilian had not solved the 
problem of keeping his aeromobile from tipping side- 
ways, so he arranged its wrings in a dihedral angle, 
which balanced it fairly well. The starting and 
alighting device was a set of wheels which we know 
so well to-day. The biplane contained 65 square 
feet of plane surface and the total weight was 645 
pounds. 

Perhaps the most important factor in this machine 
was an eight-cylinder 50-horsepower Antoinette 
gasoline motor. This was the first time that this 
now famous motor was used in an aeroplane and it 
gave promise at that time of the prize-winning 
capabilities it later developed. The propeller, which 
was made of aluminum, was about six feet in diameter, 




Copyright H. M. Benner, Hainmondsport, N. Y. 

THE JUNE BUG 

Glenn Curtiss making a flight in one of his first aeroplanes 




ORVILLE WRIGHT MAKING A FLIGHT AT PORT MVKK 

The aeroplane first became well known in this country when the 

Wright brothers carried on their Fort Myer tests 



EARLE L. OVINGTON 

7 NASSAU BOULEVARD 
tiM CLUS Of FRANCB GARDEN CITY ESTATES. LONG ISLAND 




<f . ^z&A't^+^V- 



4 £_. ^-^->^> 

















Courtesy of the Scientific American 

THE FIRST LETTER EVER WRITTEN ABOARD AN AERO- 
PLANE IN FLIGHT 

This was written at the time Ovington was carrying aeroplane mail 
from Garden City to Mineola, by aeroplane 



AEROPLANE DEVELOPMENT 53 

or about two feet less than the diameter of the twin 
screws in the early Wright biplanes. 

Several years before this the Voisin brothers had 
been taken by the general fever for aviation and in 
1907 they finished a practical biplane in which Henri 
Farman, a former auto racer, and Leon Delagrange, 
an artist, astonished the world. This early machine 
is described by one authority as something like a 
cross between a box kite and a Chanute glider. Ex- 
tending out behind the two main planes was a 
rudder like a huge box kite, which was used to 
steer the machine from right to left. This also 
helped to keep the biplane from tipping forward 
or backward. A single horizontal rudder in front 
steered it upward or downward. These rudders were 
manipulated by the operator, who sat between the 
two main planes in front of his engine, by either push- 
ing his pilot wheel forward or backward or by turn- 
ing it like the steering wheel of an automobile. There 
was no device for balancing the aeroplane, but the 
construction kept it on a fairly even keel — or, as 
the scientist said, it had inherent or automatic 
stability — i. e., stability automatically gained from 
the construction of the machine. Also the operator 
was supposed to swing his body from side to side to 
aid this. The aeroplane started from and alighted 
on four wheels set under the main plane and the tail. 
It had 559 square feet of surface and with the engine 
weighed 1,100 pounds. The motor was a 50-horse- 



54 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

power Antoinette, which drove a single aluminum 
propeller. 

After preliminary "bird hops" at Issy-les-Molli- 
neaux, Farman on October 26 beat Santos-Du- 
mont's record by flying 771 metres. On January 13, 
1908, he won the Deutsch-Archdeacon Cup of 50,000 
francs for the first person to make a circular flight of 
500 metres. Two months later Delagrange challenged 
Farman for his world championship, but lost, Farman 
twice circling the two pylons, or marking poles, that 
had been set up 500 metres apart, in 3 minutes 31 
seconds. The distance covered with turns was 
2004.8 metres. Delagrange flew the 500 metres in 
2.5 minutes. 

Then for the first time in the world's history two 
men rode in an aeroplane, Delagrange taking his rival 
behind him and sailing over a part of the course. A 
month later Delagrange took the distance record from 
Farman with a flight of 5,575 metres in 9J minutes. 

While these pioneers were winning prizes and break- 
ing records Louis Bleriot was bringing his aeroplane 
to a successful stage. He had been working on the 
problem of aviation since 1900, but had failed with 
wing flappers and machines like box kites. Finally 
he had some success with a tandem monoplane like 
Professor Langley's. The first of his machines of 
this kind was smashed in a fall, but the second, 
Bleriot's seventh flier, flew steadily and was the 
fastest aeroplane ever developed. 



AEROPLANE DEVELOPMENT 55 

Thus Bleriot at the opening of 1908 had developed 
his monoplane idea far past the stage Professor 
Langley ever had developed it. He had increased 
the size of the forward plane and decreased the size 
of the rear plane until the great forward wings did 
all the work of sustaining the machine in the air, 
while the chief uses of the tail were steering and 
steadying the machine. Moreover, Bleriot's was 
the first machine among the practical European fliers 
to have a system of wing warping such as the Wright 
brothers had developed in their wonderful biplane, 
and such as Glenn Curtiss, another American in- 
ventor, was at the same time developing for his 
machines. 

This gave Bleriot what is called three-rudder 
control — that is, the vertical rudder at the rear to 
steer it from right to left, the horizontal rudder, also on 
the tail, to steer it up or down, and the flexible wing 
tips to keep it from tipping sidewise. The aspect 
ratio of the early Bleriots was low, which gave them 
greater speed. In other words, the main plane did 
not have so great a spread as most aeroplanes do, 
while it was much deeper, and, having less of an 
entering edge, it could go faster. There were three 
wheels — two under the main plane and the third 
under the tail for starting and alighting. The engine 
was just under and at the front of the main plane, 
driving a single propeller. This propeller — which 
is the type most used on monoplanes — is called 



56 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

a tractor propeller because, instead of pushing the 
aeroplane forward from the rear, it pulls it from the 
front. The operator sat just to the rear and above 
the engine so he could look out and over the top of 
the main plane. 

The last day of October, 1908, Bleriot jumped into 
international fame with this machine by making a 
cross-country flight from Toury to Artenay, a total 
distance of about 17 miles. This was the second 
cross-country flight ever attempted. The day pre- 
vious Farman had flown his biplane from Chalons 
to Rheims, nearly 17 miles. 

Meanwhile the Wright brothers had been making 
great progress, as will be seen shortly, and Wilbur 
Wright had brought a biplane to France to make 
demonstrations for a French syndicate. He took 
up quarters at Le Mans in August, 1908. His notable 
flights broke the world's records for distance and 
duration. Early in the month he flew 52 miles and 
was in the air 1 hour and 31 minutes. A few days 
later he broke the French records for altitude by 
going up 380 feet, and on the last day of the year 
won the Michelin prize of 20,000 francs for the longest 
flight of the year. 

In January Wilbur Wright went to Pau, where he 
opened a school and was joined by his brother Orville, 
who had just recovered from a historical accident 
in the United States which will be described shortly. 
At Pau they made a great many flights and exhibited 



AEROPLANE DEVELOPMENT 57 

their aeroplane to thousands and thousands of people 
from all over the world, including great scientists, 
military men, statesmen, and many members of the 
European nobility. Among these was young King 
Alfonso of Spain, who took such a delight in the 
machine that he would have made an ascension 
were it not for the objections of his ministers. King 
Edward of England also visited the famous brothers, 
talked with them about their achievements, and wit- 
nessed several fine flights. Then Wilbur took his 
machine to Italy, where King Emanuel attended his 
exhibitions in Rome. Later in London the two 
brothers were entertained by the Aeronautical 
Society of Great Britain and received its gold medal. 
During this time they won the respect of the whole 
world of aviation. 

"Now to return to the progress made by the 
intrepid American inventors in our own country, 
led by the Wright brothers, Glenn Curtiss, A. M. 
Herring, Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, and his asso- 
ciates, F. W. Baldwin and J. A. D. McCurdy," con- 
continued the boy's friend. 

'You remember that toward the close of 1905 
the N Wright brothers suspended their flights near 
Dayton because it had become necessary for them to 
spend all their time in business negotiations. In the 
spring of 1908, after increasing the motor power of 
their flier, they began tests again because the brothers 
had agreed to furnish a machine to the United 



58 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

States Signal Corps and another to a French syn- 
dicate." 

The machine that was to be furnished to the Signal 
Corps, he explained, had to be able to carry two men 
and to be able to fly for one hour without stopping, 
at an average speed of 40 miles an hour. Further- 
more, this flight had to be made across country dotted 
with hills, valleys, and forests. Another of the re- 
quirements was that the machine should be able 
to fly 125 miles without stopping. The Wright 
brothers agreed to furnish such an aeroplane for 
$25,000, and Orville Wright went to Fort Myer, 
Va., near Washington, for the tests. 

His preliminary flights were very successful and 
thousands of Americans flocked to the drill ground 
to see what was practically the first public exhibition 
in the United States. About the time that the 
French aviators were making flights of 1 hour or 
so Orville Wright flew his machine for one hour and 
3 minutes. Repeatedly he took Lieut. Frank P. 
Lahm or Lieutenant Selfridge for short flights. 

On the 17th of September the tragic accident that 
put a stop to the flights occurred. Orville Wright 
was flying about 75 feet high with Lieutenant Selfridge 
as a passenger when one of the propellers hit a stay 
wire which coiled about the blade, breaking it and 
making the machine unmanageable. The aeroplane 
plunged to the ground, throwing the occupants 
forward. Lieutenant Selfridge suffered injuries from 



AEROPLANE DEVELOPMENT 59 

which he died within three hours, while Wright 
suffered several broken bones. This occurred while 
Wilbur Wright was at Le Mans, France. 

The year before Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, 
the American inventor, had invited Glenn Curtiss, 
a bicycle and motor manufacturer, to aid him in 
equipping with power the fliers that he was construct- 
ing with the help of Lieutenant Selfridge, F. W. 
Baldwin, and J. A. D. McCurdy. They formed the 
Aerial Experiment Association, which later became 
famous, and early in March, 1908, began the test of 
their first aeroplane, which they called the Red 
Wing. The machine was tried over the ice of 
Lake Keuka, near Hammondsport, N. Y., and before 
its makers were ready to fly it went into the air and 
sailed 300 feet. The Red Wing was of biplane type 
and mounted on skids, with the propeller and vertical 
direction rudder at the rear. The horizontal elevat- 
ing rudder was at the front. The notable feature was 
the curve of the planes. The upper plane curved 
from the centre downward, while the lower plane 
curved from the centre upward, so that the two 
planes, if they had been a little bit longer, would have 
met. This curvature was expected to give automatic 
stability, but the machine was never a great success. 

The next machine made by these experimenters 
was called the White Wing, and made some fair 
flights. The next was the famous June Bug which 
was designed by Curtiss and entered by him to 



60 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

contest for the Scientific American Cup for a flight 
of one kilometre. The test, which was held on the 
4th of July, 1908, near Hammondsport, was the first 
official flight for a prize in America, and was success- 
ful in every way, winning the cup with a flight of 
200 yards. This biplane had the three-rudder con- 
trol — that is, a tail at the rear shaped like a box kite 
to steer it from right to left, two small parallel planes 
in front to steer it up or down, and a system of flexible 
wing tips wilich enabled the operator to maintain 
a side to side balance. 

In 1909 Curtiss made some important improve- 
ments over his machine of previous years by replac- 
ing the flexible wing tips with ailerons. This w T as the 
first time these devices were used in this country, 
but they had already been introduced in Europe on 
several machines. There are many kinds of ailerons, 
but on Curtiss's biplane they were two small horizontal 
planes fixed between the outer tips of the upper and 
lower planes. They could be turned so as to keep the 
aeroplane balanced when making a sharp turn or 
when struck by a gust of wind. 

Curtiss and his partner, A. M. Herring, took the 
machine to the plains near Mineola, L. I., that sum- 
mer, and began preliminary flights. They won 
several rich prizes, including that year's Scientific 
American Cup for the longest flight of the season. 
In this Curtiss made an official distance of 24^ 
miles. 






FIRST ACTUAL WAR EXPEDITION OF AN AEROPLANE 

This picture shows Rene Simon returning from his scouting trip over 
the camp of the Mexican insurrectos, February 11, 1911 




WAR MANOEUVRES 

American army aeroplane manoeuvring over the troops mobilized at 
San Antonio, Texas, during the 1911 Mexican revolution 



AEROPLANE DEVELOPMENT 61 

We will leave Mr. Curtiss and his associates for the 
time being and take up again the work of the Wright 
brothers, who in the spring of 1909 returned to the 
United States after their European triumphs. Their 
laurels were further added to by a medal from the 
Aero Club of America, presented by President Taft 
at the White House, and medals from the Federal 
Government, the state of Ohio, and their home town 
of Dayton. All this time they were busy making 
the aeroplane with which they were to resume the 
final tests for the Government that had been inter- 
rupted the previous fall by the death of Lieutenant 
Selfridge. They arrived at Fort Myer in June, but 
spent most of that month and a large part of July 
in preparations and short practice flights. The 
great crowds, among which were scores of statesmen 
and politicians, gathered in Washington, became 
impatient at the delays, but the brothers had waited 
for a good many years to perfect their biplane and 
would not risk failure by attempting the official 
tests in bad weather, with their plane out of tune, 
or their engine in bad working order. 

Finally ten thousand cheering spectators were 
rewarded by seeing Orville Wright ascend with 
Lieutenant Lahm as a passenger, and sail for 1 
hour and 40 seconds, fulfilling the endurance re- 
quirements. The next few days the weather pre- 
vented the distance test, but one calm evening just 
before sunset Orville carried Lieut. B. D. Foulois 



m THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

across hills and valleys to Alexandria and return at 
an average speed of 42.6 miles per hour. This won 
the brothers a bonus of $5,000 on the price of the 
machine because they were to receive $2,500 extra 
for each mile per hour more than the 40 miles per 
hour called for in the contract. It was the greatest 
feat of aviation ever x seen in the United States at 
the time and the ovation tendered the brothers was 
equal to the occasion. Not once, however, did they 
lose their heads in the slightest or show any undue 
enthusiasm over their achievement. Statesmen, army 
officers, and newspaper men crowded around with 
congratulations and praises, but the great victory 
was only what the brothers had expected and they 
soon were planning improvements on their biplane. 

The real meaning of this feat by the Wright biplane, 
however, was that the United States was the first 
nation officially to adopt an aeroplane for military 
purposes. To Americans it seems peculiarly fitting 
that it was the Wright machine that was adopted 
because it was the Wright aeroplane, strictly an 
American product, that was the first practical flier. 

Later on Wilbur returned to Fort Myer to finish 
off his contract by teaching two Signal Corps officers 
to handle the machine. During this time the aviator 
changed his biplane by transferring one of the for- 
ward elevating planes to the rear, where it was used 
as a fixed tail to give greater stability from front to 
rear. This was such a success that it was used in 



AEROPLANE DEVELOPMENT 63 

subsequent models, and the present-day Wright 
biplanes have no forward lifting plane at all — the 
horizontal plane at the rear serving as the elevator 
and also as the fore and aft balancer. 

In the fall of 1909, after the Fort Myer tests, the 
brothers again separated, Orville going to Europe, 
where he achieved more distinction, and Wilbur re- 
maining at home to astonish his countrymen with 
his exhibitions at the Hudson-Fulton Celebration. 
He made the first trip around the Statue of Liberty 
on September 9, starting from and returning to 
Governor's Island in New York Bay. 

In the meantime the European aviators were 
making even greater strides, and 1909 saw many new 
aeroplanes take the air to break records of differ- 
ent kinds. Throughout the season there was hardly 
a day that some record was not broken, or that some 
previously unknown man did not achieve undying 
fame for his daring feats. 

Aeroplane schools were established and aviation 
passed from the stage of experimenting into the stage 
of record making and breaking. 

The European governments, particularly France 
and Germany, were carefully watching progress, and 
dozens of the pupils in the aviation schools wore 
young officers detailed to learn the art of flying and 
report on its usefulness in warfare. Also the building 
of aeroplanes became a great industry and in France 
thousands of scientists, designers, mechanics, motor 



64 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

experts, and wood-working experts were engaged in 
turning out machines as fast as they could. 

It would be impossible in this brief space to 
describe all of the important flights of the last few 
busy years in aviation, which were talked of by 
the boy and his scientist friend, but a very brief 
outline of the feats accomplished will show the won- 
derful progress that has been made. The first great 
international meet, which was held at Rheims, France, 
in 1909, did more than anything else up to that time 
to show the world how far the science had gone 
and how many good machines there were. So great 
was the public interest in this meet that before the 
end of the year meets were arranged and held at 
Blackpool and Donchester, England; Berlin, Juvisy, 
France, and Brescia, Italy. The most notable achieve- 
ments of the year in Europe were the flight across 
the English Channel by Bleriot in his graceful mono- 
plane, by which he won the prize of 1,000 pounds 
offered by the London Daily Mail, the winning of 
the James Gordon Bennett Cup by Curtiss, the only 
American to contest for the great honour, and the 
winning of the Grand Prix by Farman in his biplane. 
Bleriot, while practising, before his famous flight 
across the English Channel, broke many records with 
his monoplanes, No. XI and No. XII. He was the 
first man to take two passengers in such a craft, those 
in the machine besides himself being Santos-Dumont 
and A. Fournier. The total weight of machine and 




HARRY N. ATWOOD 
Arriving at Chicago on his flight from St. Louis to New York 



"-^ * 

THE FINISH OF ATWOOD'S ST. LOUIS TO NEW YORK FLIGHT 

The aviator is here seen arriving at Governor's Island 

iri New York Hay 



AEROPLANE DEVELOPMENT 65 

three men was 1,232 pounds. He also made several 
cross-country records and received medals from the 
Aero Club of Great Britain and the Aero Club of 
France. 

Bleriot's flight over the English Channel was one 
of the most dramatic that ever has been made by 
an aviator, as he encountered perils that no birdman 
ever before had faced. He had as a contestant one 
of the daring young aviators who has made the 
history of aviation read like a novel. This was 
Hubert Latham, who used the Antoinette monoplane, 
one of the most beautiful machines ever designed, 
and which is described fully later on. Young Latham 
had become a popular hero because of his daring 
feats. The aviators said that he was carrying on an 
endless battle with the wind, for he seemed to prefer 
flying high in the air when the wind was so gusty 
that other aviators were afraid to leave their hangars. 
He had made several monoplane records for endur- 
ance and altitude, and after a notable cross-country 
flight announced his intention of sailing across the 
English Channel to collect the 1,000 pounds from the 
Daily Mail. So he took his graceful monoplane to 
Calais, and after impatiently waiting for fair weather, 
soared from the towering cliffs and out over the 
stormy waters of the English Channel. Thousands 
cheered his daring and wished him success, but before 
he had gone more than six miles his motor failed him 
and he glided to the water. In a few minutes the 



66 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

boat that was sailing below him came up and found 
him calmly sitting on the upper framework of his 
machine, which was buoyed up by the great wings. 
He was looking as unconcerned as if he had been 
sitting in a motor boat on a lake, and declared he 
would try again the next day. His machine was 
wrecked in getting it ashore, however, and Bleriot 
made his famous flight before the young man could 
get it repaired. 

The older man had been injured in an accident and 
was still walking on crutches, with a badly burned 
foot, when a favourable opportunity for the trans- 
channel flight came. He was awakened before dawn 
on the morning of July 25th, and, throwing away his 
crutches as he got into his machine for a practise 
spin, he said: "I will show the world that I can fly 
even if I cannot walk." 

At 4:35, just as the sun was rising, he sailed out 
over the precipice, and Latham, watching him, wept 
with disappointment at not being able to enter the 
contest. A torpedo boat destroyer was following 
him, but soon she dropped behind and he was over 
the trackless channel without any landmark to 
guide him. Finally the coast of France dropped out 
of sight and the intrepid aviator was alone, with 
nothing but his carefully planned monoplane between 
him and death in the tossing waters hundreds of 
feet below. 

After ten minutes of this the cliffs of the English 



AEROPLANE DEVELOPMENT 67 

coast loomed up ahead, bathed in the early morning 
sunlight. He saw several boats far below him and 
followed their course, which brought him to the town 
of Deal, near which he landed. The first man to 
greet him was his good friend M. Montaine, but soon 
after a crowd of Englishmen were crowding about 
congratulating him on his wonderful achievement. 
Not to be outdone, young Latham cabled his con- 
gratulations. 

August saw the beginning of the first great inter- 
national meet at Rheims. Most of the leading 
aviators of the world gathered there to contest for 
the prizes and for fame. Curtiss, Bleriot, Farman, 
Latham, Lefabre, Count de Lambert, Paul Tissandier, 
Louis Paulhan, Le Blanc, Roger Sommer, and 
Rougier all distinguished themselves and made their 
names as familiar in this country as they were in 
France. 

Latham, with his apparently fearless disregard 
of danger, and his great, soaring Antoinette mono- 
plane that looked more like a dragon-fly when up in 
the air than anything else, was one of the popular 
idols. Not only did he fly in rough winds but also 
in heavy rainfall, as did his rival, Bleriot. Of course 
there were several bad accidents, but none to compare 
with the later fatalities. 

The winning of the $10,000 Grand Prix de la 
Champagne for the longest flight was not so spec- 
tacular as the next day's great race. Latham had 



68 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

made a record of 96 miles that it was thought would 
stand. On the day of the finals, Friday, August 
27th, Latham again took the air, making a 
spectacular flight several hundred feet high. At the 
same time several others were performing evolutions 
in the air, some high and some low. Farman was 
flying close to the ground and making but poor time 
in his slower craft. Finally, after all the others had 
come to earth, the longest flight having been made 
by Latham, with 68 miles to his credit, the crowd 
realized that Farman was making a record. Time 
after time he passed the grand stand, marking 
off the miles. It became dark, but the crowd still 
lingered, and was rewarded finally by seeing him 
bring his machine softly to the ground in front of the 
judges 5 stand, winner of the $10,000, with a record 
of 190 kilometres. His friends, wild with joy, pulled 
the exhausted aviator from his seat and carried him 
off the field on their shoulders. 

The next day Curtiss, the only American taking 
part in the meet (although several Wright biplanes 
were flown by Frenchmen), brought out his 60- 
horsepower biplane to try for the speed prize of $5,000 
offered by James Gordon Bennett. He made two 
rounds of the field at a speed of 47.04 miles an hour. 
Bleriot then brought out his great 80-horsepower 
monoplane, but the test flights were discouraging. 
Finally, after working over his machine all afternoon 
and trying several propellers, he started at five o'clock 



AEROPLANE DEVELOPMENT 69 

and made his first round in much better time than 
Curtiss had done. He slackened up on the second 
round, however, and came to earth to find that he 
had lost to the gallant American. By winning the 
prize Curtiss was allowed to take the next year's 
contest to his own country. 

There were many other records broken at the 
other meets held in 1909, but none of them stood 
long after the 1910 season had got well under way. 
Altitude, endurance, distance and speed records 
all were shattered by the ever-increasing army of 
aviators and the constantly improving machines. 

Undoubtedly the most spectacular and daring feat of 
1910 was the flight across the Alps by George Chavez, 
who was born in Paris of Peruvian parents only 
twenty-three years before his tragic death. In Sep- 
tember of that year he set out to win the prize of 70,000 
francs offered by the Italian Aviation Society to the 
first aviator who would fly the 75 miles from Brig 
to Milan, across the towering peaks and yawning 
chasms of the Alps. Of the five who entered the 
contest Chavez was the only one to make a real 
start. After waiting for several days, during which 
wind, rain and fog kept him chained to the ground, 
he finally rose in the air. 

In a few minutes he was 7,000 feet above sea level, 
crossing the famous Simplon Pass, braving the fierce 
eddies of wind that swirled around the cruel, jagged 
crags and precipices. Finally he crossed the moun- 



70 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

tains and glided down the Italian slope to Domodos- 
sola. Thousands had gathered to greet his arrival, 
but as he was sinking gradually to the earth, only 
thirty feet above the ground, a gust of wind caught the 
machine, the wings collapsed and the brave young 
man fell to earth underneath the machinery. He re- 
ceived injuries from which he died four days later. 
The committee granted him one third of the prize 
on the basis that he had completed the difficult part 
of the journey. 

No less dangerous was Glenn Curtiss's trip from 
Albany to New York in his biplane, by which he won 
the $10,000 prize offered by the New York World. 
Most of his route lay over wooded hills, the waters 
of the Hudson River, or the cliffs along its banks, 
which territory, as any one who has travelled from 
New York to Albany knows, offers few landing places. 
Starting with a letter from the Mayor of Albany to 
the Mayor of New York and followed by a special 
train on the New York Central he made Camelot, 
41 miles from Albany, in about an hour. The next 
jump was clear to Spuyten Duyvil, the northern 
boundary of Manhattan, which completed the re- 
quired 128 miles in a total elapsed time of 2 hours 
and 32 minutes. His average speed was 50^ miles 
an hour. 

This stage of the journey nearly brought serious 
disaster to the aviator, for, while passing the famous 
old mountain Storm King, he was caught by a terrific 



AEROPLANE DEVELOPMENT 71 

gust of wind and his machine was twisted sideways so 
that it dropped suddenly toward the river. By 
skilful manipulation he righted his biplane and 
continued. 

After a brief pause at Spuyten Duyvil he sailed 
down the Hudson River and the upper New York 
Bay to Governor's Island. Every whistle in the 
harbour, a few million people and the reporters 
representing the newspaper readers of the whole 
civilized world, proclaimed his victory over the wind 
gusts eddying around the palisades and the New York 
skyscrapers. 

In the United States there were many aviators 
besides Curtiss who were making an effort to win 
long distance prizes. The New York Times and 
the Philadelphia Ledger had offered a large purse, 
supposed to be $10,000, for the first flight from New 
York to Philadelphia, and on June 13th, a few days 
after Glenn Curtiss' s flight from Albany to New York, 
Charles K. Hamilton, another young man new to 
aviation, sailed in his Curtiss biplane the 86 miles 
from Governor's Island to Philadelphia in 1 hour 
and 43 minutes, and returned the same day. 
His average speed was 50| miles an hour, the 
same maintained by Curtiss in his Albany-New 
York trip. These two flights added tremendously 
to the fame of the Curtiss machines. 

The great International Aviation Tournament of 
1910, held at Belmont Park in October, was the 



72 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

climax of the season in this country. Of course 
interest centred around the race for the James 
Gordon Bennett Cup and prize of $5,000, which 
had been won the year before at Rheims by Curtiss. 
The total prizes amounted to $60,000 and practically 
every standard make of aeroplane was represented. 
The American aviators came into prominence at 
this meet, as will be remembered by the feats of 
Walter Brookins, Arch. Hoxsey, Ralph Johnstone, 
J. A. Drexel and a dozen others. The English con- 
tingent was led by Claude Grahame- White, who 
had been making himself famous at the Harvard- 
Boston meet. Of the Frenchmen, Alfred LeBlanc, 
Hubert Latham, Emiel Aubrun and Count de 
Lesseps were among the leaders. 

Nearly every one nowadays is familiar with the story 
of how Grahame- White brought out his 100-horse- 
power Bleriot monoplane for its first trial and made 
100 kilometres at an average speed of 61 miles an 
hour. Soon after that LeBlanc came out with another 
100-horsepower Bleriot, acknowledged to be one of 
the swiftest machines ever made at that time, and 
started on a race around the course at a speed such 
as the world had never seen before. In the last lap 
his gasoline gave out, the aeroplane shot downward 
and was smashed against a telephone pole. Le 
Blanc was more angry than injured, because he had 
lost the race, although his speed had been 67 miles 
an hour, or six miles better than Grahame- White's. 



AEROPLANE DEVELOPMENT 73 

Brookins, with the Wright biplane racing machine, 
started out with high speed, but the engine 
soon began to miss fire and he too came to earth. 
Consequently Grahame -White carried off the 
prize. 

The next day the aviators were out to contest 
for the $10,000 offered by Thomas F. Ryan for the 
quickest flight from the aviation field to the Statue 
of Liberty in New York Harbour, 16 miles away, and 
return. Never before was there such a dramatic 
race. Together Count de Lesseps and Claude 
Grahame-White, both in Bleriot machines, started 
for the Statue. John Moisant, the American aviator, 
who only that summer had made the first flight from 
Paris to London, suddenly determined to win the 
prize. It took him about five minutes to buy Le 
Blanc's 50-horsepower Bleriot monoplane for $10,- 
000, and just as Grahame-White and de Lesseps were 
returning from their flight Moisant started out. In- 
stead of taking the safer roundabout course, where 
there were many landing places, this dauntless 
birdman sailed directly over the church steeples 
of Brooklyn, cutting through the treacherous air 
currents at terrific speed, circling the Statue at great 
altitude and returning by the same route. His time 
was 43 seconds better than that of Grahame-White, 
who flew a machine of double the power. The 
Americans were wild with delight, thinking Moisant 
had won the prize, but the committee finally gave the 



74 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

award to Count de Lesseps, who made the slowest 
time, because Grahame- White had fouled the starting 
post, or pylon, as it is called by aviators, and because 
Moisant in his desperation to get started had failed 
to qualify. 

But there were other records broken. Ralph 
Johnstone, flying the small Wright biplane racer, 
which was equipped with particularly large pro- 
pellers, broke the altitude record of 9,104 feet which 
had been set in France by climbing to an altitude of 
9,714 feet. The round trip to and from the clouds 
took him 1 hour and 43 minutes. In connection 
with the altitude trials, the daring of Johnstone 
and Hoxsey was particularly notable. Both of 
these aviators took up their Wright biplanes when the 
wind was blowing so fiercely that they could hardly 
turn the pylons. When they got to a great altitude, 
one time the gale was so terrific that they were 
carried backward at a speed of nearly 40 miles 
an hour, and both of them had to land in open coun- 
try; Johnstone at Holtsville, L. I., 55 miles away, 
and Hoxsey at Brentwood, half that distance. Dur- 
ing these flights both of them had reached altitudes 
of more than a mile in the air. But these records 
were not destined to stand long, as will be shown 
by the table on page 75. 

But world's distance and altitude records were be- 
ing broken in Europe, too, and during the summer of 
1910 the record keepers were busy putting new 



AEROPLANE DEVELOPMENT 



75 



names at the heads of their lists, as will be shown 
by the table on page 76. The long distance speed 
race, called the "Circuit de l'Est," which took in 
a course 488 miles long, of six towns around Paris, 
aroused as much enthusiasm as any. The prize 
which was offered by the newspaper Le Matin 
of Paris was for 100,000 francs. The race started 
on August 7, with eight contestants, and ended on 
August 17 with Alfred LeBlanc, in his Bleriot 
monoplane, the winner. He had made the dis- 
tance in six stages at an average speed of 40 miles 
an hour, flying through rain, fog and wind. Next 
came Aubrun in a Bleriot and Weyman in a Far- 
man. Not only was this race one of the severest 
tests that the aeroplane had ever had, but also it 
was a trial to the aviators that did a great deal to 
prove the practicability of the aeroplanes for more 
serious work than pleasant day sport. 

ALTITUDE FLIGHTS IN 1910* 



AVIATOR 


ALTITUDE 


AEROPLANE 


PLACE 


DATE 


Faulhan 


4,164 feet 


Farman biplane 


Los Angeles 


Jan. 12, 1910 


Olieslaegers 


4,490 " 


Bleriot monoplane 


Brussels 


July 30, ' 


Brookins 


4.503 " 


Wright biplane 


Indianapolis 


July 16, ' 


Latham 


4,658 ■ 


Antoinette monoplane 


Rheims 


July 7, ' 


Chavez 


5,850 " 


Bleriot monoplane 


Blackpool 


Aug. 3, 


Morane 


6,691 " 


Bleriot monoplane 


Havre 


Aug. 29, 


Morane 


8,469 " 


Bleriot monoplane 


Havre 


Sept. 2, " 


Chavez 


8,790 " 


Bleriot monoplane 


Issy, Paris 


Sept. 8, " 


Drexel, A. 


9,450 ' 


B16riot monoplane 


Philadelphia 


Oct. 31, " 


Johnstone 
Legagneux 


9,714 ' 


Wright biplane 


Belmont Park 


Nov. 23, ' 


10,746 ' 


Bleriot monoplane 


Pau 


Dec. 9, " 


Jloxsey, A. 


11,476 " 


Wright biplane 


Los Angeles 


Dec. 26, ' 



*These records were broken in 1911 and 1912. The 1912 record being 16,240 ic- 1, made 
by Garro, France. 



76 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 



DISTANCE AND ENDURANCE FLIGHTS 







DISTANCE 


TIMK 






AVIATOR 


AEROPLANE 


MILES 


HR. 


MIN. 


PLACE 


DATE 


L. Paulhan 


H. Farman bi-p 


1 08 in all 


2 


3 


Chevilly-Arcis- sur- 
Aube to Chalons 
two stages. 


Apr. 18, 
1910 


Grahame-White 


H. Farman bi-p 


83 


2 


5 


London to Rugby. 


Apr. 23, 


L. Paulhan 


H. Farman bi-p 


193 


4 


12 


London to Manches- 
ter, two stages. 


Apr. 28, 
1910 


G. H. Curtiss 


Curtiss bi-p. 


IS© 


2 


50 


Albany to New York 


May 29, 


C. K. Hamilton 


Curtiss bi-p. 


86 


I 


43 


New York to Phila- 
delphia. 


June 13, 
1910 


R. Labouchere 


Antoinette 

mono-p 


211.27 


4 


37 


Over course Rheims, 
France, world's record 


July 9, 
1910 


J. Olieslaegers 


Bleriot mono-p 


244.43 


5 


3 


Rheims, France, 
world's record. 


July 10, 
1910 


A. Leblanc 


Bleriot mono-p 


48S 


251 


55 


Circular course, Paris, 


Aug. 7-17, 








elapsed time 


Troyes, Nancy, Mex- 


1910 












ziers. Douai, Amiens 














and back. 




E. Aubrun 


Bleriot mono-p 


48S 


2.S2 


15 


Same as above. Won 


Aug. 7-17, 








elapsed time 


second prize. Ar- 


1910 












rived only 20 minutes 














later than Le Blanc. 




M. Cattaneo 


Bleriot mono-p 


141 miles 
188 yds 
in all 


3 


18 


Lanark, Scotland. 


Aug. 13, 
1910 


R. Johnstone 


Wright bi-p 


101 miles 
389 feet 


3 


5 


Boston 


Sept. 3, 
1910 


Walter Brookins 


Wright bi-p 


192.5 in 
all. 


5 


49 


Chicago to Springfield, 
111., two stops. 


Sept. 29, 
1910 


Arch Hoxsey 


Wright bi-p 


109 


3 


33 


Springfield, 111., to St. 
Louis, Mo., one stop, 


Oct. 8, 
1910 


M. Tabuteau 


H. Farman bi-p 


289.39 


6 


1 


Buc, France. 


Oct. 28, 
1910 


G. H. Curtiss 


Curtiss bi-p 


120 






Across Lake Erie and 
return. 


Aug. 31, 
Sept. 1 


J.A.D Mc- 


Curtiss bi-p 


90 


2 




Key West to near Ha- 


1910 
Jan. 30, 


Curdy 










vana (fell into ocean). 


1911 


Capt. Bellenger 




330 


8 


22 


Paris to Bordeaux, 
France. 


Feb. i, 
1911 


Lieut. Bague 




124 


4 


32 


Antibes, Italy, across 
Mediterranean to 
Gorgona Island. 


March 5, 
1911 


Hirth 




330 


S 


41 


Munich to Berlin, 
Germany. 


June 29, 
1911 


Vedrines 




267 


3 


50 


London to Paris 


Aug. 2, 


H. N. Atwood 


Burgess- Wright 


462 


17 


12 


Boston to Washington 


1911 
June 30, 




bi-p. 




Net flying 
time 




July 11, 
1911 


H. N. Atwood 


Burgess-Wright 


1,266 


28 


53 


St. Louis to New York 


Aug. 




bi-p. 




Net flying 
time 




14-25, 
1911 


Olieslaegers 


B16riot 


388 


7 


18 


Kiewit, Belgium (over 
course). 


July 17, 
1911 


Loridan 




434 


10 


43 


Mourmelon, France 
(over course). 


July 21, 
1911 



AEROPLANE DEVELOPMENT 

DISTANCE AND ENDUKANCE FLIGTHS 

(Continued) 



11 







DISTANCE 


TIME 






AVIATOR 


AEROPLANE 


MILES 


HR. MIN. 


PLACE 


DATE 


Vassilieff 




400 




St. Petersburg to Mos- 
cow. 


July 24, 
1911 


Renaux 


M. Farman 


428 


12 12 


Chartres.France (over 
course). 


Aug. 7, 
1911 


Vedrines 


Morane 


504 


8 54 


Issy, France (over 
course). 


Aug. 9, 
1911 


C. P. Rodgers 


Wright bi-p. 


4,029 


82 4 


N. Y. to Long Beach, 


Aug. 14,- 








Total 


Cal., World's rec- 


Dec. 6, 








flying 


ord. 


1911 








time 






Helen 


Nieuportmono-p 


704 


12 40 


Bethany, France (over 
course), 3 stops. 


Aug. 26, 
1911 


Helen 


Nieuportmono -p 


778 


14 7 


Etampes, France (over 
course), 3 stops. 


Sept. 8, 
1911 


Lieuts. Ellyson, 


Curtiss bi-p 


140 


2 27 


Annapolis to near 


Oct. 25, 


Towers 








Fortress Monroe 
(ov^r water). 


1911 



Then, too, there was the great London to Manches- 
ter race for the $50,000 offered by Lord Northcliffe, 
owner of the London Daily Mail. This was one of the 
most exciting contests of the year, not only because 
of the difficulties of the trip, but also because of the 
nip and tuck finish between the two contestants. 

Claude Grahame- White had just purchased a Far- 
man biplane, and hearing that Paulhan was hur- 
rying across the Atlantic from the United States 
to try for the prize himself, the Englishman an- 
nounced that he would start as soon as his machine 
could be set up. He had had but little experience 
with the biplane, as always before that time he had 
used a Bleriot, but nevertheless, in spite of the advice 
of his friends to wait, Grahame- White started on 1 he 
183-mile flight on the morning of April 23d in the 
teeth of a high wind. According to Grahame-White's 



78 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

own account of the flight he was buffeted about so 
unmercifully by the wind that several times he thought 
he would have to descend. At the same time the 
cold was so intense that he suffered agonies. He 
reached his first stop at Rugby in safety, though so 
cold he had to be lifted from his seat, but soon after 
taking the air again the gale rose to such a pitch that 
he was forced to land. He went to a hotel to rest and 
wait for the wind to abate, but while there the gale 
tipped over his biplane, smashing it so badly that the 
aviator had to give up and take his machine back 
to London practically to be rebuilt. 

Meanwhile Paulhan had reached England and 
was rushing his workmen night and day to get his 
aeroplane set up before Grahame-White could com- 
plete his repairs and make a fresh start. 

Finally, with the wind still blowing a gale, Paul- 
han started for Manchester. Grahame-White heard 
of this at 6:30 in the evening, but manfully started 
after his competitor and flew 60 miles, when he 
was finally forced to land in the dark. Determined 
to remain in the race, he started again about three 
o'clock in the morning with the intention of trying 
to catch up with the daring Frenchman. Besides 
the bitter cold, it w r as so dark that the Englishman 
could not see whether he was flying high or low or 
even toward Manchester. The danger of this kind 
of flying he knew was very great, because if his 
engine failed him he would have had to come to 



AEROPLANE DEVELOPMENT 79 

earth anywhere he happened to light, as likely on 
a church steeple or in a lake as on a level *spot. Of 
this famous flight Grahame- White wrote in his book, 
"The Story of the Aeroplane": 

"My start was really something in the nature of 
a confused jumble. Faint lights swept away on 
either side as my machine moved across the ground. 
I could not judge my ascent at all, on account of 
the darkness. But I elevated as quickly as possible, 
and got away from the ground smartly. 

" Directly I was at a respectable height, I could see 
the lights of the railway station very distinctly. 
I headed toward them. Looking directly down, I 
found that I could distinguish nothing on the ground 
below me. It was all a black smudge. I flew right 
over the lights of the railway station — and as I was 
doing so my engine began to miss fire. It was 
certainly a very uncomfortable moment — one of 
the most uncomfortable I have ever experienced. 

"But, very fortunately for me, after a momentary 
spluttering, the engine picked up again, and fired 
properly. I had begun to sink toward the ground, 
upon which I knew I could have picked out no 
landing place in the darkness. As soon as my engine 
began to do its work again, however, I rose and con- 
tinued my flight smoothly." 

With the dawn came a terrific wind which forced 
the aviator to land near Polesworth. While waiting 



5 



for the wind to abate the Englishman and his friends 



j-> 4 



heard Paulhan had reached Manchester and won the 
prize. 



80 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

Of Paulhan's famous flight, one of the men who 
was aboard the special train following Paulhan, 
according to Mr* Grahame-White, said: 

"I do not think I have ever seen a machine roll 
about in the air as his did. He was, we could see, 
incessantly at work. One wind gust after another 
struck the machine and it literally reeled under the 
shock. 

"Up and down it went, and from side to side. 
Paulhan's pluck and determination were remarkable. 
I do not think that any other man could have kept 
on with such determination as he displayed. It was 
a strange thing to see how the wind got worse and 
worse as the airman flew on. 5 ' 

But these feats that startled the world in 1910 
would not cause a ripple of enthusiasm now, since 
the North American Continent has been crossed by 
aeroplane; since the trip from Boston to Washington 
and from St. Louis to New York has been made; 
since a machine has stayed in the air a whole day, 
or more than eight and a half hours, since a dozen 
passengers have been carried half a dozen miles and 
since the development of the hydro-aeroplane. 

Of course it hasn't all been the winning of prizes 
and the cheering of crowds, for, as we all know, there 
has been a tragic side to aviation. Up to the 
summer of 1912 more than 150 persons had met 
death in aeroplane accidents. To analyze all these 
accidents would require a whole book, but experts 



AEROPLANE DEVELOPMENT 81 

agree that in a great many cases they were the re- 
sult of carelessness on the part of the pilot. Of 
course there were other causes, such as the col- 
lapse of the wings, the breaking of stays, the over- 
turning by w T ind gusts, "holes in the air/' the ex- 
plosion of the motor, the failure of the motor at 
a critical time, or the collapse of the aviator, but 
authorities declare that many of these can be pre- 
vented by the use of proper care by the designers, 
manufacturers, and pilots of the air vehicles. 

Two of the most tragic of the recent air fatalities 
were the deaths of Arch. Hoxsey and Rodgers at 
Los Angeles, the former in December, 1910, and the 
latter in April, 1912. Hoxsey had just set a world's, 
record for altitude in his Wright biplane, while 
Rodgers only a few months before his death had com- 
pleted a transcontinental flight and made a world's 
record. 

Several women aviators also were killed in 1912, 
including Miss Harriet Quimby, one of the first 
American women to take up flying. Miss Quimby's 
machine fell with her in Boston while she was mak- 
ing an exhibition flight. 

The 1911 death roll of American aviators included: 
Lieutenant Kelly, U. S. A.; A. Hartle, Los Angeles; 
Kreamer, Badger and Johnstone, Chicago; Frisbie, 
Norton, Kan.; Castellana, Mansfield, Pa.; Miller, 
Troy, Ohio; Clarke, Garden City, N. Y.; Dixon, 
Spokane, Wash.; Ely, Macon, Ga.; and Professor 



82 THE BOYS BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

Montgomery, Santa Clara, Cal., whose early ex- 
periments are held in such high esteem by scientists. 

Just as 1910 was the year for record-breaking 
aeroplane contests, 1911 was the year that proved 
the aeroplane a machine with a greater and more im- 
portant use than that of a very exciting and a very 
expensive sport. Probably the most astounding de- 
velopments in the world of aviation in 1911 were 
the experiments of the Wright brothers at Kitty 
Hawk, which showed that man has come very near 
to solving the problem of true soaring flight. We will 
look more closely at the experiments in a later chapter. 

Of much greater practical use was the develop- 
ment of the hydro-aeroplane by Glenn Curtiss. 
His lead in this was quickly followed by the Wrights 
and most of the European makers. 

The year 1911 saw the aeroplane employed for the 
first time in the world's history in actual warfare. 
When the revolution was raging in Mexico in 
February, 1911, the Diaz Army sent Rene Simon in a 
Bleriot monoplane to make a scouting trip over the 
camp of the insurrectos. A little later on Lieutenant 
Foulois of the American Signal Service, whose name 
will be remembered in connection with the Fort Myer 
experiments, sailed over and about the camp of the 
mobilized American Army at San Antonio, Texas, 
while the Mexican revolution was in progress just 
across the American boundary line. 

Next came the use of the aeroplane for scouting 



AEROPLANE DEVELOPMENT 83 

by the Italian Army in its invasion of Tripoli. 
All of these expeditions showed that the aeroplane 
can be used more successfully in war for scouting than 
as a means for dropping explosives. Of course there 
have been many experiments conducted by aviators in 
dropping paper bombs, but army officers both in the 
United States and abroad are not agreed as to the 
success of such projects. 

Another of the important military experiments 
has been the equipping of aeroplanes with wireless 
apparatus so that a wireless operator in the machine 
with the aviator could send and receive brief mes- 
sages such as would describe the position and strength 
of an enemy in war time. Also many aviators have 
taken up with them photographers who have taken 
accurate photographs of both the still and motion 
variety of the country over which they were passing. 
Of course the armies of the world are building guns 
which will carry to a great altitude as a defence 
from aerial attack. 

Although the first country to adopt aeroplanes for 
use by its army, the United States is now far behind 
other nations in its aviation squads. The United 
States Signal Corps owns only a few Wright and 
Curtiss biplanes, with only a small number of officers 
who know how to fly them. France has an extensive 
fleet of several hundred aeroplanes and a small army 
of aviators, while Germany has established a school 
for aviation where sixty or seventy officers are always 



84 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

being instructed in flying the various types of 
machines. The German Army has now more than 
one hundred aeroplanes, besides many dirigible 
balloons. The British Government has not gone so 
far, but has conducted some interesting experiments in 
which Claude Grahame-White was one of the leaders. 

The latest things in the aeroplane, however, are 
always expected to be brought out at the French 
Army tests, and several machines that were first 
exhibited in this way will be described a little later 
on. 

But not only in war is the aeroplane being de- 
veloped, but also in the greater work of peace, be- 
cause the aeroplane enthusiasts expect that in the 
near future the art will be developed to such a degree 
of safety that regular systems of passenger traffic 
can be installed. Besides this, the aeroplane is the 
fastest mode of travelling now known, and it may be 
used for the carrying of mail. It was only in the 
summer of 1911 that the first aeroplane mail route 
of the United States was established between 
the aviation field in Garden City, L. I., and 
the United States post-office at Mineola, several 
miles away. Daily throughout the meet at Garden 
City Captain Beck and Earle L. Ovington carried 
a sack of officially stamped and sealed mail from the 
post-office on the field to the postal station at 
Mineola. The first sack was handed to Beck by Post- 
master-General Hitchcock. Before this, mail had 



AEROPLANE DEVELOPMENT 85 

been carried by aeroplane in England, but not on a 
regularly established route. 

Also the aeroplane has been pressed into service 
by deputy sheriffs seeking criminals and by searching 
parties hunting for lost persons. The former was 
done in Los Angeles when a gang of desperadoes 
escaped into the California desert and an aeroplane 
soared over the sagebrush in an effort to locate them, 
while the latter was done near New York after duck 
hunters had got lost in a storm on great South Bay, 
and near New Orleans when an aviation student 
skimmed over Lake Pontchartrain and located the 
body of a man drowned there. 

These are some of the useful developments of the 
aeroplane. Of course there have been many spec- 
tacular achievements such as the trip of Calbraith 
P. Rodgers, a comparatively inexperienced aviator, 
from Sheepshead Bay, N. Y., to Long Beach, Cal., 
across the whole American continent; the trips of 
Harry N. Atwood from Boston to Washington and 
from St. Louis to New York via Chicago, Buffalo and 
Albany; the trip of Vedrines from Paris to Madrid, 
across the Pyrenees Mountains, and the terrific speed 
of about 155 miles an hour, or more than two and a 
half miles a minute, maintained by Vedrines for 
eighty miles. Just to think of such a speed would 
take the ordinary person's breath away, but the 
aviators speak of it calmly and say it won't be long 
before it will be a common thing for aeroplanes to 



86 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

make a speed of 200 miles an hour, about twice 
as fast as the fastest automobile has ever burned 
up the road. Then, too, there was the winning of 
the James Gordon Bennett Cup and prize in England 
by C. F. Weyman, an American who flew a Nieu- 
port monoplane equipped with a 100-horsepower 
Gnome motor. It would be impossible in our 
space to give a list of the contests, races, circuit 
races and endurance tests of the year. Not only were 
aeroplanes seen in the United States, but they were 
flown in South America, Africa, Australia, Japan, In- 
dia and China. The Sphinx in the Great Sahara 
Desert, the Panama Canal, Niagara Falls, the Chinese 
Wall, the Far Eastern temples to Buddha, and the 
Islands of the Antipodes all have been circled by the 
dauntless birdmen, as w^ell as the Goddess of Liberty 
in New York and the Eiffel Tower in Paris. 

Young Atwood started from Boston without much 
ado on June 30, 1911, sailed 93 miles to New London, 
Conn., and the day following reeled off the 112 miles 
to New York as easily as he would walk across the 
street. The Fourth of July he went to Atlantic City; 
July 10th he sailed from there to Baltimore, a dis- 
tance of 122 miles, which was made in four hours and 
a half; and the day after that finished up by sailing 
into Washington, D. C. 

This young aviator still was not satisfied and 
shipped his aeroplane to St. Louis, from where on 
August 14th he started for New York. His longest 



AEROPLANE DEVELOPMENT 87 

single flight was made from St. Louis to Chicago, 283 
miles in 6 hours and 32 minutes. Flying an average 
distance of 105^ miles a day for the remaining 
eleven days, he completed the 1,266 miles on 
August 25th. His total flying time was 28 hours 
and 53 minutes, and his average speed 43.9 miles 
per hour. 

Far more exciting was the record-breaking flight 
of the ill-fated Rodgers from the Atlantic to the 
Pacific. He had a number of severe falls, but his 
determination carried him through in spite of every- 
thing. His machine was a specially constructed 
Wright biplane model Ex, something of a mixture 
between the regular racing and passenger carry- 
ing types. Starting from Sheepshead Bay, N. Y., 
on September 17th, the young giant, who had only 
learned to fly that summer, was off on the longest trip 
ever attempted by a birdman. After being on the go 
for forty-nine days, he sailed over the coast towns 
to Long Beach on the Pacific Ocean. He was actu- 
ally in the air the equivalent of 3 days, 10 hours, 
4 minutes; made an average speed of 51 miles 
an hour, and his longest single flight was from 
Sanderson to Sierra Blanca, Texas, on October 28th, 
a distance of 231 miles. He crossed three ranges of 
mountains, two deserts and the continental plain; 
he wrecked and rebuilt his machine four times 
and replaced some parts of it eight times; he rode 
through darkness and wind and rain and lightning, 



88 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

at the heart of a thunder cloud. Once his engine 
blew up while he was 4,000 feet high and he had 
to glide to earth. A special train with duplicate 
parts, a complete repair-shop, and mechanics fol- 
lowed as he winged his way up the Hudson across 
New York State, across the plains of the Middle 
West, down through Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas, 
across the Arizona and California deserts, over the 
Pacific range, and finally to the western ocean. 
His worst accident came at Compton, Cal., on the 
last stage of his journey, when he was so badly 
injured that he was laid up twenty-eight days. 
This occurred on November 12th, but, persevering to 
the end, Rodgers arose as soon as he was able and 
sailed to the ocean on December 10th. 

Rodgers remained in California the rest of the 
winter, giving many exhibitions of his daring and 
skill, only to meet his death while holding the world's 
record. On April 3, 1912, while 7,000 persons at 
Long Beach, near Los Angeles, watched his evolu- 
tions, his machine tipped forward. The crowd 
cheered, thinking it a daring dive, but became silent 
when they saw the aviator had lost control. From 
a height of 200 feet the biplane plunged into the 
surf where the water was only tw T o feet deep. When 
the people reached the broken machine Rodgers was 
dead — his neck broken. There was nothing to 
show the cause of the biplane's dive. The spot where 
Rodgers was killed is only a few yards from the one 



AEROPLANE DEVELOPMENT 89 

where he completed his transcontinental flight, and 
where the citizens of Los Angeles planned to erect 
a monument to his achievement. 

Most boys are perfectly familiar with the important 
events of 1912 in aviation, which the scientist and 
his young friend talked over so eagerly, for, of course, 
the papers are full of them, and aviation meets 
are a common thing now in nearly every city of the 
country. 

The development of the hydro-aeroplane was 
probably the chief work of the inventors for the 
year, but with it came many devices designed to 
prevent the appalling loss of life while the art of 
flying is being perfected. One of them is a para- 
chute fixed to the top of the plane, which the aviator 
is supposed to open in case his machine gets beyond 
control. In tests aviators have descended to earth 
in these parachutes without injury. Also a number 
of automatic balancing and stabilizing devices have 
been brought out. 

Frank Coffyn's feats in and about New York 
Bay during the winter of 1912 with his Wright hydro- 
aeroplane gave that city the best idea of the success 
of the aeroplane in and over water it had ever had. 
He flew from and alighted on the water and great 
ice floes in the bay as easily as aviators would fly 
from a clear landing ground on a calm day. It was 
from Coffyn's machine that the picture of the Statue 
of Liberty was taken. 



90 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

The world saw the first hydro-aeroplane meet in 
March of 1911 off the coast of the little European 
principality of Monaco. Seven aviators competed 
for the rich prizes, and, although the Maurice Farman 
machine won the greatest number of points, the 
Curtiss hydros showed the greatest speed, and 
alighted with perfect ease in breakers four feet high. 

Far more important than the winning of prize con- 
tests is the latest achievement of Glen Curtiss in per- 
fecting his "flying boat," pictures of which are shown 
opposite page 23. Curtiss describes this aeroplane 
as a combination between a speed motor boat, a yacht 
and a flying machine. Speaking of the new plane, he 
said recently : "With this craft the dangers common to 
land aeroplanes are eliminated and safe flying is here. 
It will develop a new and popular sport which will be 
known as aerial yachting." The most important fac- 
tor in this machine is its safety, but it also is speedy, 
for in its official tests at Hammondsport it developed 
50 miles an hour as a motor boat and 60 miles an 
hour as an aeroplane. The boat is 26 feet long and 3 
feet wide. The planes are 30 feet wide and 5| feet 
deep. The rudders are attached to the rear; the pro- 
peller, driven by an 80-horsepower motor, is at the 
front. 

Before we go on to other inventions let us look 
closely at a few of the aeroplanes so well known 
to-day, so that when we see them at the meets we 
can distinguish the different makes. 



CHAPTER III 
AEROPLANES TO-DAY 

OUR BOY FRIEND AND THE SCIENTIST LOOK OVER 
MODERN AEROPLANES AND FIND GREAT IMPROVE- 
MENTS OVER THOSE OF A FEW YEARS AGO — A 
MODEL AEROPLANE. 

EVERY effort of the aeroplane inventors these 
days is bent toward making the power flier 
useful — a faithful servant to man in his day- 
to-day life — and to this end greater carrying capacity 
is one of the chief objects, " said the scientist one day 
in answer to a question from his young friend as to 
what the future of aviation would be. 

"No one can tell what the future will bring 
forth, " he continued. "You or one of your friends 
might invent the ideal aeroplane. There is one 
way of telling how the wind blows, though, and 
that is by watching the new developments of 
aeroplanes very carefully. Let's look at some of 
them." 

Of course it was impossible for the boy to study 
every improvement or every make of aeroplane, but 
the scientist pointed out a few examples that served 

91 



92 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

to show how science is trying to improve on aviation 
as we know it to-day. 

The boy's friend said that probably the most won- 
derful accomplishment in the art of air navigation 
since powder fliers became an accomplished fact was 
the work of Orville Wright in the fall of 1911 with 
his new glider, which he tested at the Wright 
brothers' old experiment station at Kitty Haw T k, 
N. C. 

"Never before in the history of aviation, so far 
as is known," said the scientist, "has man come so 
near to the true soaring flight which we have seen 
is the third stage of aeroplaning." 

Not only did this wonderful glider sail into the 
wind and reach an altitude of 200 feet, but, under the 
control of the pilot, it stayed in the air 10 minutes 
and 1 second, most of the time hovering over one 
spot, without the use of any propelling device. 

On the day of the great test the glider was taken 
to the top of Kill Devil Hill, which is 110 feet high, 
and while the wind was roaring through the canvas 
at 42 miles an hour the machine was launched. 
To those unaccustomed to the actions of gliders it 
would have seemed that the engineless biplane would 
be blown backward over the edge of the hill. Instead, 
it shot forward and upward into the teeth of the 
hurricane. The force of the wind on the planes, 
which w T ere presented diagonally to it, caused the 
flier to rise and go ahead by just about the same 



AEROPLANES TO-DAY 93 

principle that a ship can sail almost into the teeth of 
the wind by having her sails set at the proper angle. 

When it had reached the altitude of 200 feet it 
stopped motionless and to those below who saw 
Orville Wright sitting calmly in the pilot's seat it 
seemed that some unseen hand was holding him aloft. 
Suddenly the pilot pressed a lever and the glider 
darted 250 feet to the left, returned to her original 
position, sank to within a few feet of the hillside 
and hovered there for two minutes. 

The Wrights had been working on the principles 
involved for a long time and at the testing grounds 
were Orville Wright, his brother Loren, who up to 
that time had not been known to the world of avia- 
tion, and Alexander Ogilvy, an English aviator. 

After the remarkable test Orville Wright was asked, 
"Have you solved real bird flight?" 

"No," he replied, "but we have learned something 
about it." 

The aviator went on to explain that had he been 
up 3,000 feet or so, where the wind currents are al- 
ways strong, he probably could have stayed up there 
all night, or as long as he cared to. 

This greatest of all feats of soaring was accom- 
plished in a glider that looked to the ordinary person 
very much like the modern Wright biplane with- 
out the engine. There were skids but they were 
very low. In general outline the machine was com- 
posed of two main planes, a vertical vane set out 



94 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

in front, two vertical planes at the rear of the tail, 
and behind these the horizontal plane. The details 
of the construction of the glider were not made 
public and only a few persons saw it, but from all 
accounts the curve of the main planes was much 
greater than is usual, thus gaining the glider a greater 
degree of support from the air, and the planes were 
capable of being warped much more than in the 
ordinary Wright biplane. The vertical vane in 
front, which does not appear on any of the Wright 
power fliers, was a foot wide and five feet tall. It 
acted as a keel and gave the machine greater side- 
to-side stability because the wind passing at a high 
speed to each side of it tended to keep it vertical. 

In working out a biplane that could rise from 
or alight on the water, Glenn Curtiss practically 
doubled the usefulness of aeroplanes. The experi- 
ments, conducted under the auspices of the United 
States Navy so impressed the officers that several 
have been added to its equipment. Curtiss has 
been experimenting with hydro-aeroplanes for several 
years, but before actually completing one he 
conducted a number of experiments with ordinary 
biplanes in the vicinity of Hampton Roads, Va., in 
1911, to prove them available for use on battleships. 
Finally, Lieutenant Ely flew from the deck of the 
cruiser Birmingham over the water and to a con- 
venient landing spot on land. 

Later on Curtiss went to California to perfect 



AEROPLANES TO-DAY 95 

his hydro-aeroplane, and while conducting the work 
Lieutenant Ely made a flight from shore to the deck 
of the battleship Pennsylvania which was lying in San 
Francisco Harbour. These two incidents were more 
in the nature of " stunts" than developments, but they 
showed what an aeroplane could do if attached to a 
battleship fleet as a scout. 

Even more convincing was the proof when Curtiss 
finally worked out a form of wooden float which 
was put between the mounting wheels. The float 
was flat-bottomed with an upward inclination at 
the prow so that when skimming over the water the 
tendency was to rise from the surface rather than to 
cut through it. Small floats at the outer tips of the 
lower main plane helped to keep the machine on an 
even balance while floating at rest upon the water. 
The wheels served their regular purpose if the 
machine started from or alighted upon land. 

The experiments were conducted on San Diego 
Bay, and it was only after long and patient labour 
that the work of Mr. Curtiss and his military asso- 
ciates was rewarded with success. In the course of 
the experiments he tried a triplane, which had great 
lifting power, but this later was abandoned in favour 
of the regular biplane fitted with a float. After the 
machine had been perfected, Curtiss flew his hydro- 
aeroplane out into the bay to the cruiser Pennsyl- 
vania, upon which Ely had landed a month before, 
and after landing on the water at the cruiser's side 



96 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

was pulled up to her deck and later was put back 
into the water from where he sailed to camp. The 
machine was named the Triad because it had con- 
quered air, land, and water. 

Of the machine Curtiss says : "I believe the hydro- 
aeroplane represents one of the longest and most 
important strides in aviation. It robs the aeroplane 
of many of its dangers, and as an engine of warfare 
widens its scope of utility beyond the bounds of the 
most vivid imagination. The hydro-aeroplane can 
fly 60 miles an hour, skim the water at 50 miles and 
run over the earth at 35 miles." 

It was not long after the Curtiss hydro-aeroplane 
had been successfully demonstrated, before all the 
other leading makers brought out air craft that could 
sail from and alight on water as well as on land. The 
Wright hydro-aeroplane, which is equipped with two 
long air-tight metal floats instead of one, has achieved 
great success in the United States. In Europe all the 
leading biplane types are now made with hydro- 
aeroplane equipment, and flying over water became 
as popular last year as flying over land did in 1910. 

The first American monoplane to be equipped 
with the floats of a hydro-plane was shown by the 
"Queen" company at the New York Aero show in 
May, 1912. It was called an aero boat as the front 
part of the fuselage was enclosed like a boat and the 
operator sat in it, under the wings. The propeller was 
at the rear and there was a small pontoon at each 






THE WORLD'S LONGEST GLIDE 

This photograph shows the new Wright glider, driven by Orville 
Wright, being held above Kill Devil Hill, N. C, in the face of a high wind, 
for 10 minutes 1 second 




THE END OF A GLIDE 

After remaining aloft the new glider was allowed gently to settle to 

earth 




LANDING ON A WARSHIP 

Lieutenant Ely is here shown landing in a Curtiss biplane on the 
platform built on the deck of the cruiser Birmingham, at anchor in 
Hampton Roads 




Courtesy of the Scientific American 

BOARDING A BATTLESHIP 

Glenn Curtiss being hoisted aboard the battleship Pennsylvania in 
San Diego Harbour after alighting alongside in his hydro-aeroplane 



AEROPLANES TO-DAY 97 

end of the wings to keep it on an even keel when 
stationary in the w^ater. A short time after this 
the Curtiss company turned out the flying boat 
which was described on page 90. 

In general outline the aeroplanes in use to-day 
differ greatly from those seen several years ago, but 
the difference is in form rather than in principle. 
There have been many improvements, of course, 
in construction, control of the fliers, and in the 
powerful engines that drive them. In fact the 
tendency of aeroplane builders has been # to adopt 
the successful devices on other machines rather than 
to work out original ones. 

The most noticeable change in the present-day 
aeroplanes is the way in which builders nowadays 
are enclosing the bodies and landing framework in 
canvas or even light metal, so that they shall offer 
as little resistance to the air as possible. It gives 
the machines the appearance of being armoured, as 
will be noticed from the pictures of the new planes, 
so the term has come to be used in that sense, 
although, of course, the covering would not protect 
them against bullets. This armour has become 
particularly popular with the designers who are 
making aeroplanes for the French Army, and at the 
recent military tests in France most of the machines 
were covered to some degree, and many of them 
looked for all the world like great long-bodied gulls 
or mammoth flying fishes. 



98 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

Several aeroplanes have been equipped with twin 
motors and double steering systems so that either 
or both could be used. This, of course, is a great 
advantage in case one fails. Also designers are 
figuring on wing surfaces that can be reefed or tele- 
scoped for better stability as well as wings that can 
be folded for easier transportation. 

Experts do not agree on the respective merits of 
the two great general types of aeroplanes — that is, 
monoplanes and biplanes. Some claim that the 
monoplane is the best and others that the biplane 
is the most successful flier. Records show that so 
far monoplanes are the faster of the two types, but 
biplanes can be fitted with hydro-aeroplane floats, 
whereas it is impractical with most monoplanes. 
Many declare the biplane to have the greater lifting 
power, but the Bleriot "Aero-Bus" has carried a jolly 
family party of eight without difficulty. Each type 
has its champions as to safety, reliability and endur- 
ance, but time will have to decide the question. 

WRIGHT BIPLANE 

First let us look at one of the latest "Wright biplanes 
as it is brought out on the aviation field and is being 
tuned up by its keen-eyed young American pilot. The 
description of the 1909 Wright will be remembered. 
Also it will be remembered how the Wright brothers 
in 1910 discarded the forward horizontal elevating 
rudder entirely, and substituted in its place a single 



AEROPLANES TO-DAY 99 

elevating rudder at the rear end of the tail, which 
also served to give fore and aft stability. Also in 
1910 the Wright brothers added wheels to the skids 
that hitherto had been used for starting and alighting. 
Thus the old system of having the machine skidded 
along a rail by a falling weight, as previously de- 
scribed, was done away with in favour of its running 
over the ground on its wheels. 

After noting these inprovements, we will look at 
the general outlines of such a Wright racing machine 
as contested for the James Gordon Bennett Cup 
in 1910. The two main planes are the smallest 
yet used on a biplane, being only 21 \ feet wide 
from tip to tip, and only S| feet from front to rear. 
Thus, the aspect ratio, it will be seen is 7. They are 
the same general shape as the planes on the 
other Wright machines, and their total area is 145 
square feet. The machine is steered up or down by 
the horizontal elevator rudder in the rear, which 
is oblong-shaped, 8 by 2 feet. The rudder that 
steers the machine from right to left is set vertically 
at the tail and is worked in combination with the 
levers that work the warping of the tips of the 
planes. On this little machine the twin-screw 
propellers, 8| feet in diameter, sweep practically 
the whole width of the machine. They are connected 
by chains to the 60-horsepower 8-cylinder Wright 
engine (in ordinary biplanes of this type the 
engine is 30 horsepower) and make 525 revolutions 



100 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

per minute ( in ordinary machines of this type they 
make 450 revolutions per minute). The machine 
weighs a total of 760 pounds and is capable of more 
than GO miles an hour. 

The elevation rudder is controlled by a lever set 
either at the right or left hand of the operator. The 
direction rudder is controlled by a lever that also 
controls the warping of the planes, as in turning it 
is necessary to cant the machine over to the inner 
side of the curve being made, in order to prevent 
slipping sidewise through the air. However the 
handle of the direction and warping lever is so ar- 
ranged by a clutch system that by moving the lever 
simply from side to side the direction lever can be 
worked independently of the warping. The direc- 
tion and balancing system then, we see, is worked in 
this manner. Say, while flying, a gust of w T ind 
causes the biplane to dip at the right end. The 
operator quickly moves his warping lever forward. 
This pulls down the tips of the right planes, 
and at the same time elevates the tips of the 
left planes. The change of the angle makes the 
right side lift to its normal position while it makes 
the left side drop. Consequently the machine is 
restored to an even keel and the operator lets the 
planes spring back to their normal shape. 

The large 1911 Wright biplanes, model B, are de- 
signed the same as the small racing models except 
that the w r ings have a spread of 39 feet, and a depth 



AEROPLANES TO-DAY 101 

of 6| feet — a total area of 440 square feet. The 
perpendicular triangular surfaces in front like two 
little jib sails, are a distinguishing feature, although 
the latest Wright models substitute narrow vertical 
fins about six feet tall and six inches wide. They are 
placed immediately in front of the main planes. The 
hydro-aeroplane substitutes two aluminum floats 
for the wheels. 

CURTISS BIPLANE 

The Curtiss biplane, which we have seen has had 
a great deal to do with the development of avia- 
tion, is one of the simplest and most successful 
machines known to-day. The main planes of the 
regular-sized machines have a spread of 26^ feet, 
are set 5 feet apart, and have a depth from front to 
rear of 4| feet. The total wing area is 220 feet. 
The direction rudder is a single vertical vane at the 
rear, which is turned by the steering wheel connected 
by cables. The elevation rudder consisting of one 
horizontal plane 24 square feet in area is at the 
front and is turned up or down by the pilot as he 
desires to sail up or down, by means of a long 
bamboo pole connecting the elevation rudder with 
his pilot wheel. He pushes the wheel forward or 
back to rise or descend, while he twists it from 
right to left to turn in either of those directions. 
The side-to-side balance was maintained in the early 
Curtiss machines by flexible wing tips, but these 



102 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

later were replaced by ailerons placed between 
and at the outer tips of the main planes. Each 
aileron had an area of 12 square feet and they were 
operated by a brace fitted to the operator's body. 
Thus, if the machine tipped to the right, the operator 
would swing to the left, turn the ailerons, and right 
the machine. In some later Curtiss biplanes these 
ailerons were replaced by others, like flaps attached 
to the rear outer edges of the main planes. By raising 
the flaps on one side and lowering them on the other 
the balance was well preserved. 

As before stated, these machines are driven by 
Curtiss engines. In most of them the engines are 
4-cylinder, 25-horsepower motors. The cylinders 
in this type, of course, are stationary, but the engine 
shaft is directly connected with the 6 -foot propeller 
at the rear, which makes 1,200 revolutions per min- 
ute. The pilot sits between the two main planes 
of his engine. On large Curtiss machines seats for 
as many as three passengers have been arranged at 
the sides of the pilot. 

The most important work Curtiss has done in 
the last few years is the development of the hydro- 
aeroplane, which has been explained. 

VOISIN BIPLANE 

The next biplane with which we are familiar is the 
Voisin, which Henri Farman demonstrated as the 
first really successful aeroplane seen in Europe. This 



AERpPLANES TO-DAY 103 

machine was a standard of what was called the 
cellular type because it was composed of cells, like 
a box kite. The two main planes, which were the 
same size, 37 feet by 6| feet, were connected at the 
outer edges so as to make the plane a closed cell — i.e., 
a box with the ends knocked out. Two other vertical 
surfaces between the main plane gave the machine 
the appearance of three box kites side by side. The 
tail out behind was composed of a square cell. In 
the centre of it was a vertical vane for steering it 
from right to left, while out in front was a single 
horizontal rudder for raising or lowering the plane. 
The control was much the same as in the Curtiss 
machine. The steering wheel turned the plane from 
right to left, and was connected by a rod with the 
elevator, so that by pushing it forward or back, the 
machine was raised or lowered. There was no device 
for maintaining a side-to-side balance as the cell 
formation was supposed to keep the machine on an 
even keel. The motor drove a propeller at the rear. 
The later Bordeaux type of Voisin which was built 
for military purposes does away with the side curtains 
and box tail. On the outer rear edge of the upper 
main plane are ailerons for maintaining the balance, 
which are operated by foot pedals. The elevator 
is a single horizontal plane at the rear of the tail, 
while the direction rudder is a vertical plane beneath 
it. This machine carries two persons, and is fre- 
quently driven by a Gnome engine. 



104 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

Still another and later type of the Voisin Bordeaux 
is the front control. In this the ailerons are used 
as previously described, but also there are side 
curtains enclosing the outer edges of the main planes. 
Out in front at the end of a long framework or 
fuselage are the horizontal elevating planes, and the 
vertical direction planes. Both these machines have 
double control systems. 

FARMAN BIPLANE 

Dissatisfied with the work of his first Voisin bi- 
plane in the early days of flying Henri Farman de- 
signed and built a machine that bore his own 
name, of which the military type is now looked 
upon with great favour by many of the European 
experts. 

The two main supporting planes in the regular 
Farman models were 33 feet by 6| feet, set 7 feet 
apart, and with a total area of 430 square feet. These 
dimensions have been varied slightly in other ma- 
chines. The elevating rudder, which was set well 
out in front of the body of the machine, was a horizon- 
tal plane controlled by a wire and lever. In the rear 
was a tail of two parallel surfaces, slightly curved 
like the main planes of the biplanes. These two 
surfaces steadied the machine from front to rear. At 
their two sides were two vertical surfaces, giving the 
tail the appearance of a box kite, so familiar in the 
Voisin. These two vertical surfaces, however, com- 



AEROPLANES TO-DAY 105 

prised the direction rudder, and were turned from 
side to side by the operator with a foot lever. In 
some of the later Farman biplanes the two vertical sur- 
faces were done away with in favour of a single one, 
extending between the centres of the two horizontal 
surfaces of the tail. The side-to-side balance was 
maintained by ailerons in the form of wing tips set 
at the outer rear edges of the main planes. The tips 
were hinged and connected with wires which led 
to the lever that worked the elevating rudder. Thus 
by pulling this lever toward him the operator tilted 
the rudder up, and the machine rose, and by moving 
it from side to side the biplane was kept on an even 
keel. For instance, if the machine were to tip to 
the right he would move the lever to the left, pulling 
down the hinged ailerons on the right. The ones 
on the left would still remain standing straight out 
at the same angle as the main planes. The increase 
in the lifting power on the right side would cause that 
end to rise, righting the machine. 

Most Farman biplanes these days are driven by 
the well known 7-cylinder Gnome rotary air-cooled 
engines, set at the rear of the main plane. They 
are directly connected with the single propeller, 
which is 8| feet in diameter. The seat for the aviator 
is in front of the engine at the front edge of the lower 
plane, and there also frequently are placed seats for 
two other passengers. The machine is mounted on 
wheels and skids. 



106 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

The "Farman Militaire" type is one of the largest 
and heaviest machines made to date, having a total 
area of supporting plane of 540 square feet. The 
chief difference is that instead of two direction 
rudders there are three, and that the lower main 
plane is set at a dihedral angle. It was on such a 
machine ("Type Michelin") that Farman flew 
steadily for eight and a half hours. It also has made 
remarkable distance, endurance, and weight-carrying 
records, although it is a slow machine, making but 
34 to 35 miles an hour. The "Type Michelin" is 
distinguished by the fact that the upper main plane 
has a spread of 49 feet, 3 inches, while the lower 
plane had a spread of only 36 feet. 

MAURICE FARMAN BIPLANE 

Soon after Henri Farman had become famous as an 
aviator and constructor of aeroplanes, his brother 
Maurice began to build air craft. The Maurice 
Farman biplane was the result. After conducting 
their business separately for several years the 
brothers consolidated, and each type is known by 
the name of the brother designing it. The Maurice 
Farman biplane has some remarkable records, among 
them the winning of the Michelin prize in 1910 by 
Tabuteau, who flew 362^ miles in seven and a half 
hours without stopping. 

The main planes have a spread of 36 feet and a 
depth of 7| feet. They have not as great a curve 



AEROPLANES TO-DAY 107 

or camber as most biplanes, which increases their 
speed. The tail is of the well-known Far man cell 
formation — that is, it has four sides. The two 
vertical surfaces swing on pivots and are controlled 
by wires connecting with the direction steering wheel. 
The horizontal surfaces of the tail, except for the 
tips, are stationary, and steady the machine from 
front to rear. The rear tips of these two surfaces, 
however, work on pivots in connection with the main 
elevating plane which is set out in front. The elevator 
is a single plane controlled by a rod connected with 
the steering wheel, while the tips of the horizontal 
tail surfaces are controlled in unison with the main 
elevator by wires, also connected with the steering 
wheel. Ailerons are set into the rear outer tips of 
the main planes, for the control of the side-to-side 
balance, and these are worked by foot pedals. In 
order to give greater safety in case of the breakage 
of a wire, all the controlling parts in the Maurice 
Farman machine are duplicate, which is a big step 
toward the much-desired double controlling system 
in aeroplanes. The biplane is mounted on both skids 
and wheels. The operator sits well forward on the 
lower plane in a comfortable little pit enclosed in 
canvas. Thus, the Maurice Farman machine was 
the first to adopt this device for shielding the pilot 
from the wind. The engine used usually is an 8- 
cylinder air-cooled Renault, which drives a pro- 
peller nearly 10 feet in diameter. 



108 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

BREGUET BIPLANE 

Only slightly known in the United States but well 
and favourably known in Europe, particularly in 
France, is the Breguet biplane, which made wonderful 
records in the French Army tests in 1911. A brief 
description will show the difference between this 
machine and others of the biplane type. It has won 
many prizes for its stability and lifting powers, and 
also has shown great speed. The framework is 
mostly metal and is so elastic that it gives under the 
pulsations for the wind, so that the machine is not 
so badly strained by gusts as the more rigid kinds. 
Also it is thought the elasticity increases its lifting 
capacity. Of the two main planes the upper one 
spreads 43| feet, while the lower one spreads 32| 
feet. They are 5| feet deep, and set 7 feet apart. 
The body and tail of the machine are made on delicate 
graceful lines, terminating in the elevation and 
direction rudders at the rear. There are no rudders, 
vanes, or other rigging out in front. The lateral 
balance is maintained by warping the planes. The 
propeller is at the front of the machine, and is of the 
tractor type, pulling it through the air instead of 
pushing it. In the latest machines a metallic three- 
bladed Breguet propeller, the pitch of which is self- 
adjusting, is used, but in others a two-bladed wooden 
propeller, such as is familiar in this country. The 
long body, or fuselage, as the framework of the tail 



AEROPLANES TO-DAY 109 

is called, is enclosed on the latest types of Breguets 
in use by the French Army, greatly adding to its 
gracefulness, and decreasing the wind pressure. 

There are several other makes of biplanes that 
could be described to advantage but space prevents 
it, and the descriptions here given serve to illustrate 
the principle of the biplane type of aeroplane. 

BLERIOT MONOPLANE 

The first and probably best known monoplane, 
the Bleriot, still holds many records for both speed 
and endurance. The Bleriot machines have so many 
variations that it would be impossible to describe all 
the types of monoplanes this versatile Frenchman 
has turned out. We are familiar in a general way 
with the Bleriot, the single widespreading main 
plane, set at a slight dihedral angle, with its long, 
graceful body out behind terminating in the horizontal 
elevating and vertical direction rudders, giving it 
the appearance of a great soaring bird as it sails 
through the air as steadily as an automobile on a 
smooth road — much more steadily in fact, for as 
soon as the wheels of an aeroplane leave the ground 
all jolting disappears, and not even the vibration 
of the engine is noticeable, although the roar of its 
explosions can be heard a great distance. There 
is nothing but the breeze and the earth streaming 
along behind you, as if it were moving and you were 
hovering motionless high up in the sky. 



110 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

In the famous Bleriot XI, in which the designer 
made the first trip across the English Channel, the 
main plane had a spread of a little more than 28 feet 
and a depth of 6 J feet, a total area of 151 square feet 
and a low aspect ratio of about 4.6. At the end 
of the stout wooden framework, that made up the body 
and tail, was the vertical direction rudder 4| square 
feet in area which was turned from right to left by a 
foot lever. The elevation rudder was divided into 
two halves, one part being put at each side of the 
direction rudder. The total area of the elevator 
was 16 square feet, while the horizontal stabilizing 
plane to which the elevator was attached was about 
the same. The balance was maintained by warping 
the main plane, but instead of warping the tips of 
the plane, as is done in the Wright biplanes, the two 
sides of the main plane were warped from the base, 
so that the operator could change the angle of inci- 
dence — that is, the angle at which the planes travel 
through the air. Thus, if the machine should tip 
down on the right side, the operator would warp the 
planes so as to increase the angle of incidence on the 
right side and lessen it on the left side. In other 
words, the rear part of the right wing would be bent 
downward, while on the left side the rear edge would 
be raised. The forward edge remains stationary. 
The increase of the angle on the right side would 
cause an increase of the lifting power on that side 
and also the decrease of the angle on the left side 



AEROPLANES TO-DAY 111 

would lessen the lifting power of the left wing so 
the right side, which was tipping down, would be 
lifted, and the machine restored to an even keel. This 
warping was done by moving from side to side the 
same lever on which was mounted the steering wheel. 
The whole machine was mounted on a strong chassis 
with wheels for starting and alighting. The pilot sat 
in the framework above the main plane. The mono- 
plane was propelled by a single propeller of the tractor 
type 6 to 7 feet in diameter, placed at the front of the 
machine. It was driven in the early Bleriots by a 
23-horsepower Anzani motor, but more lately the 
Bleriot machines have carried Gnome motors. 

One of the important improvements which ap- 
peared on the No. XI bis was the changing of the 
main plane so that the upper side was curved but the 
under side was nearly flat. This gave the machine 
much more speed and the designers found that the 
flattening out of the curve on the under side did not 
greatly lessen the lifting power. This same type 
of machine also was made later to carry three pas- 
sengers. The machine known as the "Type Mili- 
taire" was just about like the others except that the 
tail instead of being rectangular was fan-shaped. It 
carried seats for two and was equipped with all the 
latest aviation accoutrements, such as tachometers, 
barographs to record altitude, instrument to record 
inclination, various other gauges, map cases and 
thermos bottles. 



112 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

The most distinctive feature of the Bleriot No. 
XII, which was the first aeroplane to carry three 
passengers, was the long vertical keel, shaped like 
the fin of a fish at the top of the framework. The 
direction rudder was at the rear of this keel, while 
the elevation rudder was at the rear and a little 
below it. Immediately below the direction rudder 
was a small horizontal plane about the size of the 
elevation rudder which helped to maintain a fore 
and aft stability. 

Then there was the famous Bleriot aerobus which 
would carry 8 to 10 people. The machine was very 
large, the wings having a spread of 39 feet and a 
total area of 430 square feet. It was driven by a 
100 -horsepower Gnome motor and a propeller 10 
feet in diameter, which was placed at the rear of the 
main plane. Thus the propeller drove the machine 
through the air from the rear instead of pulling it 
from the front as do the tractor propellers on most 
of the Bleriot monoplanes. The passengers were 
seated underneath the main plane on the framework 
which extended out to the rear. The tail terminated 
in the vertical direction rudder and a large stationary 
horizontal surface which gave the necessary front- 
to-rear stability. The elevating plane of this type 
was placed out in front. 

The Bleriot Canard or " duck " is one of the latest 
developments of the pioneer constructor, and the 
chief difference between it and the other Bleriot 




THE FLYING BOAT STARTING 

The latest aeroplane is here seen cutting through the water prepara- 
tory to ascending into the air 




THE CURTISS FLYING BOAT 

This is the very latest development in the hydro-aeroplane, and more- 
over it is claimed by its inventor, Glenn Curtiss, to be the first abso- 
lutely safe aeroplane 



*M «=._ :^s>^SSSm \ 



GLENN CURTISS ALLOWING HIS HYDRO-AEROPLANE TO 
FLOAT ON THE WATER AFTER ALIGHTING 



1 f 



\ 




AEROPLANES TO-DAY 113 

machines is that the body extends out in front of the 
main plane instead of behind, something like Santos- 
Dumont's first machine. The main plane has a 
spread of 29 feet, and has a total supporting surface 
of 129 square feet. At the forward end of the body 
is placed the horizontal elevating rudder, while two 
small vertical rudders, placed on the top of the outer 
ends of the main plane and working in unison, serve 
to steer it from side to side. The balance in this 
machine is preserved by large hinged ailerons at the 
outer rear edges of the main plane. The pilot sits 
in front of the engine underneath the plane, which 
is a military advantage, giving him ample chance for 
looking down and observing everything over which 
he is passing. 

ANTOINETTE MONOPLANE 

No machine that ever was flown has excited more 
admiration from those on the ground than the 
graceful Antoinette monoplane, designed by the 
famous French motor-boat builder, Levavasseur. 
Its great tapering wings and long fan-shaped tail 
give it the appearance of a huge swallow or dragon- 
fly as it sails through the air, and whenever this 
type has appeared at the American meets it has re- 
ceived tremendous applause. 

The two best known models of the Antoinette are 
the type used by Latham in this country, and the 
"armoured" type, entered in the French military 



114 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

tests. The bow of the first-mentioned machine is 
shaped very much like the prow of a boat with the 
50 to 100 horsepower 8- or 16-cylinder water-cooled 
Antoinette engine occupying the extreme forward 
part. The propeller is set in front of this, and is 
of the tractor type, drawing the machine through the 
air behind it. In the recent models of the Antoinette, 
the main plane, set at a slight dihedral angle, spread 
a little more than 49 feet (compare this with the spread 
of 28 feet of the Bleriot). The two sides of the main 
plane taper from the body of the machine, but have 
an average depth from front to rear of 8 feet, which 
gives a fairly high aspect ratio of about 6. The 
total area is 405 square feet. The main plane also 
tapers in thickness, being nearly a foot through close 
to the body and tapering down to a few inches 
at the outer tips. The graceful tail at the rear has 
both vertical and horizontal surfaces gently tapering 
to the height and width of the elevating and direction 
rudders. The elevating rudder is a single horizontal 
triangular surface at the rear controlled by cables 
running to a pilot wheel at the operator's right hand. 
It has an area of 20 square feet. The direction 
rudder is composed of two triangular surfaces with 
an area of 10 square feet each. One is above the 
elevator and the other below, but both are worked 
in unison by wires connecting with a foot lever. 
The machine is balanced by a warping system 
much like that on the Wright biplanes we know 



AEROPLANES TO-DAY 115 

so well. This is accomplished by wires connecting 
with a steering wheel at the pilot's left hand, so 
that he uses his right hand to steer his machine up 
or down, his feet to steer from right to left, and 
his left hand to maintain the balance. Of course, 
in making a sharp turn he uses his warping wheel 
as well as his direction wheel, because, as pre- 
viously explained, it is necessary to incline the ma- 
chine over toward the inside of the curve desired 
to be made. The pilot sits in the framework, above 
and a little back of the supporting plane. 

The "armoured 55 Antoinette, which was designed 
for military purposes, is entirely enclosed, even in- 
creasing the already great resemblance to a bird, 
while the direction rudder is made of a single surface, 
and the elevating rudder of two rhomboid-shaped 
rudders. The pilot sits in a cockpit with only his 
head and shoulders protruding above and has a view 
below through a glass floor. Its most important 
feature is the total elimination of cross wires, struts 
and the like. The resistance is greatly decreased, 
but the weight increased. In addition, a peculiar 
wing section is used, flat on the under side and curved 
on the upper side. The wings are immensely thick, 
being entirely braced from the inside. At the body 
the wings are over two feet thick. Their thickness 
decreases toward the tips, which are about eight 
inches thick. The shape of each wing is called 
trapezoidal, and they are set at a large dihedral 



116 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

angle. The motor is a regular 100-horsepower 
Antoinette. 

The oddest feature of this type is the landing 
gear, which is entirely enclosed to within a few inches 
of the ground; the landing wheels at the front are 
six in number, three on each side of the centre, en- 
closed in what is called a "skirt." At the rear are 
two smaller wheels. 

The dimensions are roughly as follows: Spread, 
52| feet, wings, 602 square feet; length over all, 36 feet; 
depth of wings (from front to rear) at tips, over 9 
feet, increasing to almost 13 feet at the centre. The 
total weight is nearly 2,400 pounds. 

NIEUPORT MONOPLANE 

The Nieuport monoplane is one of the newer ma- 
chines that has attracted a great deal of attention 
for its speed with low-powered engines. Among the 
achievements of this monoplane was Weyman's win- 
ning of the James Gordon Bennett Cup and prize in 
England in 1911, and the demonstration of its remark- 
able passenger carrying abilities. The Nieuport also 
is a wonderful glider, for Claude Grahame- White took 
his new one up 3,000 feet at Nassau Boulevard, 
Garden City, during the 1911 meet there and glided 
down the whole distance without power, the down- 
ward sail taking him nearly as long as the upward 
climb. 

The passenger machine has a spread of 36 feet 




«*' *i .*«!»&& A f~«*^ .-* • ^ \ 



STANDARD CURTISS BIPLANE 

For reliability and stability the Curtiss biplane is one of the best 

known models 




CURTISS STEERING GEAR 

Sitting in front of the engine the aviator controls the ailerons by 
straps over his shoulders, and the direction and elevation rudders by the 
steering wheel 



AEROPLANES TO-DAY 117 

with a length of about 24 feet from front to rear. 
This machine is generally equipped with a 50 or 
70 horsepower Gnome motor, although the plane 
with which Weyman won the Gordon Bennett contest 
was equipped with a 100-horsepower Gnome motor. 
The smaller machine has a spread of 27 feet, 6 
inches and a length of 23 feet. An engine of the 3- 
cylinder Anzani type is usually mounted on this 
monoplane. 

The body of the flier gracefully tapers to a 
point at the rear where are placed the elevating and 
steering rudders. 

The chief characteristics of the Nieuport are 
strength, simplicity in design, and great efficiency of 
operation. The smaller machine, which is equipped 
with an engine of from 18 to 20 horsepower, has ac- 
quired a speed of 52| miles an hour. The Nieuport 
is constructed along original lines throughout. The 
wings are very thick at the front edge, while the 
rear edges are flexible so that in gusts of wind they 
give a little. 

The fuselage, or body of the machine, which is 
extraordinarily large, and shaped like the body of 
a bird, is entirely covered with canvas. 

The weakest part of the Nieuport monoplane is 
the alighting and running gear, which is so designed 
as to eliminate head resistance, but unfortunately 
this simplicity is carried to an extreme which makes 
the machine the most difficult one to run along the 



118 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

ground, and to this construction may be traced most 
of the accidents which have occurred to the Nieuport 
machines. 

The Nieuport control differs from that of the 
majority of other machines inasmuch as the wing 
warping is controlled by the feet, while hand levers 
operate the vertical and elevating rudders. 

MODEL AEROPLANES 

After having taken in such a lot of information 
about aeroplanes the scientist's young friend con- 
sidered himself fairly well equipped to build a flier. 

"Why couldn't I build a little model aeroplane?" 
he said one day. 

"No reason why you couldn't/ 5 answered his friend 
in the laboratory. "You have a little workshop 
at home and your own simple tools will be plenty. 
You will have to buy some of your materials, but 
they are all cheap. 

"There is no sport like model aeroplane flying, 
but to the average American boy the flying is not 
half so much fun as meeting and overcoming the 
obstacles and problems entailed in making the little 
plane. These days nearly any boy would scorn to 
enter a model aeroplane tournament with any ma- 
chine that he did not make himself, and a great 
many of the amateur aviators even prefer to 
make their own designs and plans. 

"When we begin to take up the construction of a 



AEROPLANES TO-DAY 119 

glider or an aeroplane, we must, like the Wright 
brothers, reluctantly enter upon the scientific side 
of it, because in model building we cannot simply 
make exact reproductions of the great man-carrying 
fliers, but must meet and overcome new problems. 
The laws that govern the standard aeroplanes apply 
a little differently to models, so it is necessary for 
the model builder to figure things out for himself. 

"For instance/' explained the scientist, "most 
amateurs have decided that monoplane models fly 
much better than biplanes. The reason for this is 
probably that with the miniature makes the air is 
so disturbed by the propeller that its action on the 
lower plane tends to make it unsteady rather than 
to give it a greater lifting capacity. This could be 
avoided by placing the two planes farther apart, 
but they would have to be so far separated that the 
machine would be ungainly and out of all proportion. 
Moreover, the second plane, with the necessary stays 
and trusses, adds to the weight of the machine, and 
this is always bad in models. 

"There are as many different types of model aero- 
planes as there are of the big man carriers, but you 
had better make a small flier first, experiment with 
it, and then work out your own variations just as you 
think best.'" 

"Will you help me build one?" asked the boy. 

"No, for you don't need my help and you will have 
more fun doing it alone. I will tell you how to go 



120 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 



about it, and with what you know of the principles 
of aviation from our conversations it will be easy 
to make a successful model." 

Then taking a piece of paper and a pencil the 
scientist began to draw rough plans for the building of 
a little model monoplane something like the Bleriot, 
except that it was driven tail first, with the propeller at 
the rear. As he worked he explained how the plan 
shown below should be followed, saying that the begin- 
ner would find that a length of about one foot would 
be the most convenient for this first model. Later 
on he can make the big ones with a spread of wings 
of three feet, and a length of forty 
or more inches. 




A SIMPLE MODEL AEROPLANE 



First, the three main parts of the model should 
be made. Those are the two main planes and 
backbone. The simplest way of making the planes 
for a model of this kind is to use thin boards of poplar 
or spruce, which will not split easily and which can 
be worked with a jackknife. The large plane should 




STANDARD FARMAN BIPLANE 

Note the box tail and the single elevating plane 




FARMAN PLANE WITH ENCLOSED NOSE 

This type is sometimes used in Europe, and it led to the Farman 
"canard" with the box tail in front 




A MODERN BLERIOT 

This machine has the enclosed fuselage and other recent improve- 
ments. Note the four-bladed propeller 




A STANDARD BLERIOT 

This is the regular type of Bleriot made famous bv long over-water 

flights 




PASSEXGER-CARRYIXG BLERIOT 

This type has tremendous capacity for carrying great weights 



AEROPLANES TO-DAY 121 

be rectangular, with a spread of eight inches and a 
depth of two inches, while the smaller plane should 
be the same shape, four by one inch. They should 
be one eighth of an inch or less in thickness. Plane 
and sandpaper them down as thin and as smooth 
as possible without splitting them, and round off the 
corners just enough to do away with sharp edges. 
Now draw a line parallel with the side that is eight 
inches long, three quarters of an inch from the edge. 
Measure off two inches toward the centre from the 
outer edges, along this line, and draw lines parallel 
with the edges that are two inches deep. At the 
corners which are to be the rear we find the lines 
make two rectangles three quarters of an inch by 
two inches, and these corners are to be cut away in a 
graceful curve from the corners of the rectangles. 
When it is done the main plane will be shaped like 
a big D with the curved edge to the rear. The front 
edge of the small plane also should be curved, but 
not nearly so much as the larger plane. This done, 
the planes can be steamed or moistened with varnish, 
and given a slight curve or camber by laying them on 
a flat board with a little stick underneath and weights 
at the front and back to hold down the edges while 
they dry and set. The sticks should be about one 
third of the way back from the front edges, from there 
tapering down to the level of the rear edge. Of 
course, in this process great care must be used not 
to split the delicate planes. 



122 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

There are many other ways of making planes. If 
one does not care to round off the edges, he can make 
very light wooden rectangular frames of the size 
indicated, and cover them with cloth, or silk, after- 
ward varnishing them to make them smooth and 
airtight. It is difficult to give such planes a camber, 
but if the framework is made of strong light wire, 
such as umbrella ribs, and then covered, the camber 
can be obtained by putting light wire or light wooden 
ribs in the planes, much like on the big standard 
makes. Plane building can be developed to a high 
art, and after a boy makes one or two models he will 
see any number of ways that he can make them 
lighter, stronger and more professional looking. 

With the planes finished, the next work is to make 
the backbone of the machine by planing and sand- 
papering a light strong stick one foot long and not 
more than a quarter of an inch square. Cut out a 
neat block of the same wood, the same thickness as 
the backbone, and one inch square. Glue it to the 
end of the backbone and reinforce it by wrapping 
it with silken thread moistened with glue or varnish. 
Be sure to have the grain of this block, which is the 
motor base, run the same as the backbone. Three 
quarters of an inch from the backbone, and parallel 
with it, bore a little hole for the propeller shaft or 
axle. Unless you are sure of your drill, heat a thin 
steel wire and burn the hole, rather than risk splitting 
the block. 



AEROPLANES TO-DAY 123 

The propeller is the next thing to make, while the 
glue on the backbone is drying, and the camber of the 
plane is setting. Some models have metal pro- 
pellers, but most boys prefer to make wooden ones, 
either from blocks of their own cutting or from blanks 
that can be purchased. The blank should be four 
inches in diameter an inch wide, and half an inch 
thick. It can be cut away very thin with a sharp 
knife, and a fairly good whittler can make a propeller 
that looks as businesslike as the great gleaming 
blades on the big machines. A wire then should 
be run through the dead centre of the propeller and 
bent over so that when the wire shaft turns the pro- 
peller also turns. As a bearing or washer the simplest 
device is a glass bead strung on the shaft and well 
oiled to lessen the friction, between the propeller and 
the propeller base. The shaft is then run through 
the hole in the motor base and bent into a hook for 
the rubber strands that drive the propeller. Great 
care should be taken in mounting the propeller and 
making the hook that the shaft is kept in an abso- 
lutely straight line, and at an accurate right angle 
with the propeller, so that the screw can turn free 
and true with as little friction as possible, and no 
wobbling or unbusinesslike vibration. Next a wire 
hook should be placed at the other end of the back- 
bone upon which to hook the other end of the rubber 
strands. This hook can either be imbedded in 
another block the same size as the motor base or can 



124 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

be set out by some other ingenious device, so that 
the strands will turn free of the backbone, and will 
make an even line parallel with it. Both hooks should 
be covered by little pieces of rubber tubing to protect 
the rubber strands. Any friction whatever in a 
model is bad, but it is worst of all upon the rubber 
strands of the motor. 

With the parts in hand the next step is attaching 
the planes to the backbone. In this machine the 
motor should be above the planes, so that the planes 
should be affixed to the upper side of the central 
stick, with the rubber strands above them. The 
propeller is at the rear, so the small front plane 
should be placed at the front, with the slightly curved 
edge to the rear. It should be about an inch from the 
tip of the stick and the front edge should be elevated 
slightly to give the necessary lifting power. The 
main plane should be placed about an inch from the 
rear tip of the backbone, with the curved edge to the 
rear and the front slightly elevated. The planes 
should be affixed with rubber bands so that it is 
possible to move them forward or back, because the 
little monoplane might be lacking in fore and aft 
stability and the rearrangement of the planes might 
correct it. It might even be found more satisfactory 
in some models to change the order and let the pro- 
peller, base, and strands of the motor come below 
the planes instead of above them. Your own ex- 
perience will tell best. 





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AEROPLANES TO-DAY 125 

Of course, the planes must be placed on the back- 
bone exactly evenly or the airship will be lopsided, a 
fatal fault. By experimenting, the boy can tell just 
how high the front edges should be elevated, or, in 
other words, what angle of incidence he should give 
his plane. A rudder, to keep the machine in a 
straight course, can be added underneath the centre 
of the main plane. It should be about two inches 
square, but shaved off to a curving razor edge. Also 
light skids of cane or rattan may be added. They 
should be glued to the under side of the backbone 
and curved backward like sled runners. The front 
one should be two and a half to three inches high, 
while the rear one should be about an inch to an inch 
and a half less. 

After trying out the model as a glider by throwing 
it across a room and making sure it is well balanced 
both laterally and longitudinally, or from side to 
side, and fore and aft, the rubber strands can 
be put on, and the motor wound up. About 
four strands of rubber one eighth of an inch 
square, such as is sold for this purpose, would 
suffice for good flights of more than one hundred 
feet, if the machine were of the same weight and 
proportions as the model from which this description 
was written. In models, however, there are many 
little details that can change the conditions, and 
a boy can only experiment, locate his mistakes, and 
try it over again. 



126 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

This is one of the simplest and easiest model aero- 
planes that can be made. A trip to one of the model 
aeroplane tournaments will reveal dozens of more 
elaborate ones, which will give any ingenious boy 
ideas for development of the principles he can learn 
from the simpler type. Probably the next step of 
the average boy would be to build a machine with 
two motors, which can be done by elaborating the 
single stick backbone or by making a backbone of 
two or three sticks well braced with cross pieces 
at each end and in the middle. Then there are 
interesting experiments with the size of planes, 
number of planes, their aspect ratio — that is the 
proportion of their width to their depth — ailerons 
for automatic stability, and rudders for keeping 
the machine on a straight course. There are 
always new things to be done with the motors, 
because, though the rubber motors have driven 
models close to half a mile, there are now on the 
market miniature gasoline motors to drive models, 
and experiments are being tried with clockwork 
and compressed air. Indeed the model aeroplane 
field is as broad in itself as that of the man-carry- 
ing machines. 

Aviation has been reduced to an exact science, but 
it is yet in its early growth, both in the field of models 
and in the field of the various kinds of man-carrying 
machines. Not only are the designers making great 
headway with aeroplanes, but also with dirigible 



AEROPLANES TODAY 127 

balloons so any one interested in aeronautics has 
a very wide field for his work. As we said in an 
earlier chapter, the boy model designer of to-day 
may be the inventor of to-morrow who gains undying 
fame by some now undreamed-of development of 
the aeroplane. 

The designers of the man carriers are trying to make 
their machines stronger, safer, more reliable, capable 
of carrying more passengers, and they hope at last 
to bring them to a more practical use in the world 
than as a sport. The most thoughtful aviators 
do not favour exhibition flying so strongly as 
they do long cross-country flights, endurance tests, 
passenger-carrying tests, and other experiments that 
will develop aeroplanes beyond their present limit- 
ations. 

The next great feat of the aeroplane is the crossing 
of the Atlantic Ocean, and that may not be far 
distant, for at the time of writing half a dozen aviators 
are planning the attempt, but even more important 
than that, even more important than the develop- 
ment of the aeroplane for war scouting, is the develop- 
ment of the aeroplane as a faithful servant of the 
people who are quietly going about their own every- 
day business. The time will come when the readers 
of this may send their mail by aeroplane, take pleas- 
ure rides in the aeroplane instead of the automobile, 
and even make regular trips on regularly established 
aeroplane routes, buying their tickets a I the great 



128 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

central aeroplane stations as they would buy railroad 
tickets in the Grand Central or the Pennsylvania 
stations to-day, taking their seats in comfortably 
arranged aero cars, and being whisked in a few 
hours from one part of the country to the other, and 
even from one side of the ocean to the other. 



CHAPTER IV 

ARTIFICIAL LIGHTNING MADE AND HAR- 
NESSED TO MAN'S USE 

OUR FRIENDS INVESTIGATE NIKOLA TESLA's INVEN- 
TION FOR THE WIRELESS TRANSMISSION OF POWER, 
BY WHICH HE HOPES TO ENCIRCLE THE EARTH 
WITH LIMITLESS ELECTRICAL POWER, MAKE OCEAN 
AND AIR TRAVEL ABSOLUTELY SAFE, AND REVOLU- 
TIONIZE LAND TRAFFIC. 

HOW would you like to send a signal clear 
through the earth with your wireless outfit 
and get it back again on your receiving 
instrument as clear and strong as at first, just about 
the same way you hear the echo of your voice when 
it rebounds from a mountainside or a big building ?" 
asked the scientist one day while his young friend 
was telling him about his amateur wireless experi- 
ments. 

"I don't see how I could," answered the boy. 
"No, of course you don't," said the boy's friend, 
"for it took Nikola Tesla, 'the wizard of elec- 
tricity' almost a lifetime to work out the invention 
by which he could do that, but if you like we will go 

129 



130 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

and see Doctor Tesla and ask him to tell us about 
his wonderful experiments. 

"You see this is a series of inventions by Tesla, 
and wireless telegraphy is only a small part of it. 
You remember the other day you told me of 
having read about aeroplanes equipped with wire- 
less. Just think, Tesla's invention will make it 
possible for airships to be propelled and operated 
all by electricity sent without wires. The whole 
broad plan is called the wireless transmission of 
power, and that simply means that electricity can be 
transmitted without wires for all the uses we now 
have for it, as well as for a number of entirely new 
and hitherto unknown devices. " 

The boy was delighted with the prospect of 
seeing the great scientist Tesla, about whom he 
had read so much, and began to ask his older 
friend a thousand questions about the man, his 
work and life. 

It was a good many days before the whole thing 
had been talked over, and the boy understood the 
series of inventions, but we will follow through a part 
of our scientist's explanation and the visit to Tesla's 
laboratory and plant. 

Although Tesla's plan is one of the most astound- 
ing ever proposed by science, it has been proved 
possible by experiments of such hair-raising nature 
that the inventor has been called a "daredevil' 5 a 
"demon in electricity" and a "dreamer of dynamic 



ARTIFICIAL LIGHTNING 131 

dreams." In his experiments he has produced 
electrical currents of a voltage higher even than the 
bolts of lightning we see cleaving the sky during the 
worst thunderstorms. These currents he has har- 
nessed to his own use and made them tell him the 
inmost secrets of the earth — in fact of the palpitation 
at the very core of the globe — the heartbeats of 
our sphere. He has given exhibitions in which he 
has caused currents of inconceivably high power to 
play about his head as if they were gentle summer 
breezes, and while working in the mountains of 
Colorado, he has brought forth electrical discharges 
which caused disturbances in the wireless telegraph 
apparatus in all parts of the globe. 

In short, Nikola Tesla plans to make artificial 
lightning, and so harness it to the use of man, that 
it can be sent anywhere on or above the earth, 
without wires. 

To scientists and electrical engineers, Tesla's plan 
offers a field for limitless study and discussion, but 
to the boy who is interested in electricity it offers 
one of the most fascinating subjects for reading and 
thinking in all the realm of science. Just reflect 
that with the wireless transmission of power, and 
the development of an art that Tesla calls "telauto- 
matics," the navigators of wireless power-driven air- 
ships and ocean liners will know their exact speed, 
position, altitude, direction, the time of night or 
day, and whether there is anything in their path, 



132 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

all through the wireless "telautomatic" devices for 
registering such impressions. 

Tesla declares that the terrible Titanic disaster 
never would have occurred had his system been in 
effect last April, for he declares that the Titanic } s 
captain would have known of the iceberg he was ap- 
proaching long enough in advance to slacken speed 
and get out of its way. Moreover, he declares that 
with the wireless transmission of power, the wireless 
telegraph becomes a very simple matter, and that 
immediately after the accident, had the ship struck 
an obstacle in spite of warnings, the captain could 
have been in wireless telephone communication with 
his offices in London and New York, and with all 
the ships that were on the seas in the vicinity of the 
ill-fated liner. 

But making air and sea navigation safe, sure, and 
speedy, are only the first steps Tesla intends to take 
in the wireless transmission of power. After that 
he hopes to light the earth — to carry a beautiful 
soft bright light to ranchmen far out on the deserts, 
to miners in their cabins or deep in the earth, to 
farmers, and to sailors, as well as to people in their 
homes in the cities all over the world — Australia 
as w^ell as the United States. 

Wireless electrical power, according to Tesla, 
will be one of the greatest agencies in war, if there 
is any, but it first will be an argument for universal 
peace. "Fights, 55 says the inventor, " whether be- 



ARTIFICIAL LIGHTNING 13S 

tween individuals or between nations arise from mis- 
understandings, and with the complete dissemination 
of intelligence, constant communication, and famili- 
arity with the ideals of other nations, that inter- 
national combativeness so dangerous to world peace, 
will disappear." 

If Tesla's plan were carried out in full it would 
completely revolutionize the industries of the world, 
for all the power of Niagara or any other waterfall 
in the world could be sent without wires to turn the 
wheels of the industries in China or Australia, while 
the power of the Zambesi Falls in Africa could be 
transmitted to run trains, subways, elevateds, and 
all other forms of industry in the United States. 
There is practically no limit to the possibilities of the 
scheme, because through Tesla's invention, distance 
means nothing, and the power instead of losing force 
with distance as is the case when power is transmitted 
through wires, retains practically the same voltage 
as at the outset. 

We will visit Doctor Tesla at his office and labora- 
tory in the Metropolitan Tower in New York with 
the scientist and his young friend to see what kind 
of a man it is who has invented machines for creating 
and handling such tremendous voltages. 

Tesla sits at a wide flat-topped desk in the centre 
of his sunny office surrounded by books, a few models 
of inventions, and a few pictures of some of his most 
remarkable electrical experiments. He is very tall 



134 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

and slight, with a mass of black hair thrown back 
from his intellectual forehead. His piercing gray 
eyes sparkle as he smiles in greeting, and his thin 
pointed face lights up with an expression of pleasure 
and kindness that cannot help but make the great 
electrician's visitors feel that he is a good friend. 
Although he was naturalized more than twenty years 
ago, and has been an American citizen ever since, 
his English still shows some slight traces of his foreign 
birth. He looks no more than forty-odd and he is 
as interested in everything that is going on in the 
world as a young boy, but he has passed his fiftieth 
year. 

" For all that I am something of a boy still 
myself," says the inventor. "You see I could work 
for the present generation to make money. Of course 
that's all right, but I don't care what the present 
generation thinks of me. It is the growing genera- 
tion — the boys of to-day that I want to work for, 
because they will live in an age when the world has 
advanced far enough in science to understand some 
of the deeper mysteries of electricity. The boys 
of to-day are the great scientists of to-morrow, and 
it is to them that I dedicate my greatest efforts." 

All his life Tesla has been working with an eye 
to the future as well as to the present, and some 
of his inventions probably will be far better appre- 
ciated in twenty years than they are now, although 
to Tesla we owe our thanks for some of the most 



ARTIFICIAL LIGHTNING 135 

important electrical machinery in use at the present 
time. 

As an inventor Tesla is best known as a pio- 
neer in high tension currents. It was he who 
introduced to the world the great principle of the 
alternating current, as up to the time he carried 
out his experiments only the direct current was used. 
Indeed, more than four million horsepower of water- 
falls are harnessed by Tesla's alternating current 
system. That is the same as forty millions of un- 
tiring men working without pay, consuming no 
food, shelter or raiment while labouring to provide 
for our wants. In these days of conservation, it 
is interesting to note that this electrical energy 
derived from water power saves a hundred million tons 
of coal every year. Our trolley roads, our subways, 
many of our electrified railroads, the incandescent 
lamps in our homes and offices, all use a system of 
power transmission of this man's invention. 

As said before Tesla is a naturalized American 
citizen. He was born in Smiljan, Lika, on the 
Austro-Hungarian border, in 1857. He came by his 
scientific and inventive turn of mind naturally, for 
his father was an intellectual Greek clergyman, and 
his mother, Georgia Mandic, was an inventor herself 
as was her father before her. The boy attended the 
public schools of Lika and Croatia, where he was a 
leader among his playmates in sports where imagina- 
tion and mechanical skill were required. There are 



136 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

marvellous tales of the ingenuity of Tesla while 
a schoolboy, but with all his play he was a serious- 
minded student, and went through the Polytechnic in 
Gratz and the University of Prague in Bohemia with 
honours. While in the Polytechnic, Tesla saw the 
defects of some of the machinery that was used in 
the laboratory, and made suggestions for its improve- 
ment. 

After finishing college Tesla began his practical 
career in Budapest as an electrical engineer in 1881. 
His first invention followed soon after in the form 
of a telephone repeater. He continued in electrical 
engineering in Paris until 1884, when he came to the 
United States. His first employment in America 
was with The Edison Company at Orange, N. J., 
but in 1887 he went into business for himself as an 
electrical engineer. From that time on he has been 
an important figure in the scientific world. He has 
made many addresses before various gatherings of 
experts and has written numerous papers on scientific 
subjects for the magazines. Of course the bulk of 
his time has been given to his inventions and the 
necessary research therefor. 

Throughout his life Tesla has been more interested 
in the adventurous and scientific side of electricity 
than the commercial side, and all of his inventions 
smack of the marvellous. To name all his inventions 
would be almost like giving a list of the machines and 
devices that mark man's progress in the use of 




LIKE A BOLT OF LIGHTNING 

The electrical discharge of this Tesla oscillator created flames 70 feel 
across, under the pressure of 12,000,000 volts and a current alternating 
130,000 times per second 





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s s J 

o §£ 

* Si 

g .8 3 

tf 
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ARTIFICIAL LIGHTNING 137 

electricity. His invention for the alternating current 
dynamo, for instance, brought forth an entirely new 
principle, while his rotating magnetic field made 
possible the transmission of alternating currents 
from large power plants over great distances and is 
very extensively used to-day. High power dynamos, 
transformers, induction coils, oscillators, and various 
kinds of electric lamps all came in for his attention. 

He became one of the foremost authorities on high 
tension currents and in 1889 invented a system of 
electrical conversion and distribution by oscillatory 
discharges which was a step toward his great goal, 
the wireless transmission of power. He was very 
near the prize when in 1893 he announced a system 
of wireless transmission of intelligence. His studies 
continued and finally, in 1897, he announced his 
famous high potential transmitter by which he 
claimed to be able to send power through the earth 
without wires. The art of telautomatics announced 
in 1899 was really a part of Tesla's invention for 
the wireless transmission of power, for the plan was 
to control such objects, for instance, as airships or 
boats, from a distance by electricity transmitted with- 
out wires. 

Through that marvellous invention the boat or 
aeroplane dispatcher, sitting before a complex little 
wireless dispatching board could send his craft, at 
any speed, at any height, in perfect safely, and with 
exact precision to the place or port he desired it to 



138 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

go. It would not be necessary for the dispatcher 
ever to see the craft he was directing, for his instru- 
ments would show him everything in regard to its 
speed, direction, and location; nor yet would it be 
necessary for a craft to have a crew aboard, for 
all the operations in connection with sending 
it from one place to another would be controlled 
perfectly by telautomatics. 

Such are the almost inconceivable inventions of 
Nikola Tesla. " Sometimes they call me a dreamer, " 
says Tesla, "because I do not capitalize these in- 
ventions, start in manufacturing and make a big 
fortune. That is not what I care to do. I want 
to go further in this great mystery of wireless power, 
and if I am busy making money I cannot devote my 
best abilities to inventions that will be in use when 
the next generation is grown." 

But let us try to fathom the mysteries of Tesla's 
scheme for the transmission of electric energy with- 
out wires. In the first place we must not try to 
think of it as being on the same basis as the radio, 
or Hertzian wireless telegraph, for, although the 
modern developments of the wireless telegraph take 
into consideration the central theory of Tesla's in- 
vention, they are not at alJ the same in their practical 
working. 

Tesla's theory is based entirely on his dis- 
covery of what he calls stationary electrical earth 
waves which he sets in motion with his high potential 



ARTIFICIAL LIGHTNING 139 

magnifying transmitter, an electrical apparatus of 
tremendous power. 

First, let us remember the three essential depart- 
ments of Tesla's idea for world telegraphy, world 
telephony, and world transmission of power for 
commercial purposes. 

Assuming that the power is created by Niagara 
or some other great waterfall — "white coal" as it 
is picturesquely called by many engineers — the 
first necessities are a transformer and a transmitter 
that will send the electrical energy, thus gathered, 
into the earth and air. The next necessity is a re- 
ceiving instrument that will record the impulse, 
whether it be a voice, a telegraph click, or several 
million volts for driving factory wheels or lighting 
houses. Lastly, it is necessary to tune the currents 
so that millions of different impulses can be sent 
without causing confusion between them. In other 
words, there must be departments for sending, re- 
ceiving and "individualizing." 

To ask Doctor Tesla to tell us the whole story of 
this invention would be to ask him to tell us in detail 
the whole history of his life work — and that would 
take several volumes, for he is one of those men who 
have worked incessantly, day and night, sacrificing 
himself and overcoming his natural desire for leisure 
and amusement. It all started, Tesla explains, when 
he was a very small boy. He was troubled at 
that time with a strange habit. Whenever any one 



140 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

would mention a thing to him, a vision of the object 
immediately would come before his eyes. He de- 
clares that this was very troublesome, and that as 
he grew older he tried to overcome it, thinking it 
some strange malady. With an effort he learned 
how to banish the images by putting them from 
his mind. On inquiring into the cause of the vis- 
ions, the young scientist's penetrating brain brought 
him to the conclusion that every time he saw a 
vision, some time previous he had seen something 
to remind him of the object. The tracing back 
of the cause of his vision so frequently caused it 
to become a mental habit, and he declares that for 
many years he has done it automatically, and that he 
has been able to trace the cause of nearly every 
impression, even including his dreams. Reflect- 
ing on these things, as a mature scientist, Tesla 
came to the conclusion that he was an automaton, 
responding automatically to impressions registered 
on his senses from the outside. 

" Why couldn't I make a mechanical automaton that 
would represent me in every way, except thought? 55 
he asked himself. The answer to the question which 
came only after years of study and experiment was 
the art of "telautomatics," which Tesla declares 
can be developed just as soon as the wireless trans- 
mission of power is an accomplished fact. 

In the course of his research into the realm of high 
tension currents Tesla reached the stage where it 



ARTIFICIAL LIGHTNING 141 

was no longer safe nor convenient to experiment in 
the centres of population. Moreover, he desired to 
make a study of the action of lightning. Colorado, 
with its vast stretches of uninhabited plains and 
mountains, offered an ideal place for his laboratory, 
particularly because the high, dry climate of that 
state brings forth some of the worst electrical 
storms seen in the United States. Consequently, 
in the spring of 1899, Tesla built an experiment 
station on the plateau that extends from the front 
range of the Rocky Mountains to Colorado Springs, 
and began the experiments through which the secret 
with which he hopes to revolutionize the communi- 
cation and transportation systems of the world, was 
revealed to him. 

Besides his high power alternating current dynamo, 
Tesla set up an electrical oscillator with which he 
hoped to send out electrical waves, through the earth 
and air, that would prove to him the possibility of an 
extensive system of wireless communication, and 
telautomatic, or wireless control of airships, projectiles, 
steamships, etc. In his early experiments he used 
the oscillator at low tension, but as his success became 
more marked he increased the tension, until the 
oscillator was giving twelve million volts, and the 
current was alternating a hundred thousand times 
a second. 

In regard to these high tension experiments in 
Colorado and elsewhere, Doctor Tesla said, "I 



142 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

have produced electrical oscillations which were of 
such intensity that when circulating through my 
arms and chest they have melted wires which have 
joined my hands, and still I have felt no inconven- 
ience. I have energized, with such oscillations, a loop 
of heavy copper wire so powerfully that masses of 
metal placed within the loop were heated to a high 
temperature and melted, often with the violence of 
an explosion. And yet, into this space in which this 
terribly destructive turmoil w^as going on I have 
repeatedly thrust my head without feeling anything 
or experiencing injurious after effects." 

Among the earlier experiments, which in them- 
selves were wonderful enough, w r ere the transmission 
of an electrical current through one wire without 
return, to light several incandescent lamps. Advanc- 
ing further along the trail of wireless transmission 
of power, Tesla lighted the lamps without any wire 
connection between them and his transmitter. 

The oscillator, though simple in its construction, 
is one of the most w T onderful of all electrical devices. 
"You see," said Doctor Tesla, "all that is neces- 
sary is a high power alternating dynamo which 
generates a tremendous alternating current. For 
our oscillator proper, we make a few turns of a 
stout cabl earound a cylindrical or drum-shaped form, 
and connect its two ends with the source of electrical 
energy. Then, inside the big cable, or primary coil, we 
wind a lighter wire in spiral form. One end of the 



ARTIFICIAL LIGHTNING 143 

secondary coil is sunk into the ground and connected 
with a plate, and the other is erected in the air. 
When the current is turned on, our oscillator sends 
these electrical impulses into the earth and air — or, 
as the scientists say, into the natural media. These 
oscillations create electrical waves and affect any 
device that is tuned to them — but (and this is very 
important) no device that is not tuned to them." 

Continuing the explanation of his high tension 
experiments, Tesla tells us that the awe-inspiring 
electrical display, of which there is a picture on page 
136, was made by his oscillator which created an 
alternate movement of electricity from the earth 
into a hollow metal reservoir and back at a speed 
of 100,000 alternations a second. The reservoir is 
already filled to overflowing with electricity and as 
the current is sent back to it at each alternation the 
terrific force makes it burst forth with a deafening 
roar, as great as the heaviest lightning detonation. 
The electric flames shoot out in every direction 
searching for something on which they may alight, 
just as lightning sent from the clouds searches for 
a conductor upon which it may alight and escape 
into the earth. The induction coils in the picture 
are tuned to these tremendous electrical explosions, 
and the flames shoot direct to them, a distance of 
22 feet. 

The flames shooting from the coil of the oscillator 
pictured on page 164 were nearly 70 feet across. 



144 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

represented twelve million volts of electricity, and 
a current alternating 130,000 times a second. These 
hair-raising experiments created such electrical 
disturbances that it was possible to draw great 
sparks more than an inch long, from water plugs 
over 300 feet from the laboratory. One of the most 
marvellous things about these experiments is that 
any human being could remain in the vicinity. The 
absolute safety of these discharges when properly 
harnessed is well illustrated in the picture shown 
there as the man seen amidst the flames felt no ill 
effects from his experience, simply because this power 
was so thoroughly harnessed by the wizard Tesla, 
that it could go only to the device tuned to receive 
it. Every boy is familiar with stories of lightning 
striking one person, but yet leaving another person 
right next to him unharmed. Such is the action 
of Tesla's high tension currents, only he directs them 
by induction just as he wants them to go. 

"But this is just like lightning!" exclaimed the 
boy. 

"So it is," calmly answered Doctor Tesla with a 
smile. "I have often produced electrical oscillations 
even greater than the energy of lightning discharges." 

These experiments were marvellous enough, but 
they were surpassed in a short time by his famous 
discovery of July 3, 1899, which showed him that he 
could send his wireless waves to the opposite side 
of the earth just as well as a hundred feet away. 



ARTIFICIAL LIGHTNING 145 

This revelation, as the scientist calls it, came about 
through his study of lightning. The scientist had 
set up in his Colorado laboratory many delicate 
electrical instruments to register various different 
electrical effects. Tesla noticed, however, that 
strangely enough his instruments were just as 
violently affected by distant electrical storms as by 
nearby disturbances. 

"One night when meditating over these facts," 
said Tesla, "I was suddenly staggered by a thought. 
The same thing had presented itself to me years ago; 
but I had then dismissed it as impossible. And that 
night when it recurred to me I banished it again. 
Nevertheless, my instinct was aroused, and somehow 
I felt that I was nearing a great revelation. 

"As you know, it was on the third of Ju y that I 
obtained the first definite evidence of a truth of 
overwhelming importance for the advancement of 
humanity. A dense mass of strongly charged clouds 
gathered in the west, and toward evening a violent 
storm broke loose which, after spending much of its 
fury in the mountains, was driven away with great 
velocity over the plains. Heavy and long persisting 
arcs formed almost at regular intervals of time. My 
observations were now greatly facilitated and ren- 
dered more accurate by the records already made. I 
was able to handle my instruments quickly, and was 
prepared. The recording apparatus being properly 
adjusted, its indications became fainter and fainter 



146 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

with the increasing distance of the storm, until they 
ceased altogether. I was watching in eager expecta- 
tion. Sure enough, in a little while the indications 
again began, grew stronger, gradually decreased, and 
ceased once more. Many times, in regularly recur- 
ring intervals, the same actions were repeated, until 
the storm, as evident from simple computations, with 
nearly constant speed had retreated to a distance 
of about two hundred miles. Nor did these strange 
actions stop then, but continued to manifest them- 
selves with undiminished force. 

"When I made this discovery I was utterly 
astounded. I could not believe what I had seen was 
really true. It was too great a revelation of Nature 
to accept immediately and unhesitatingly/ ' 

What Tesla had discovered, and soon announced 
to the scientific world, was the existence of stationary 
terrestrial waves of electricity, and its meaning was 
that an impulse sent into the earth was carried on 
these waves to the other side of the earth and re- 
bounded without any loss of power. He had, in 
fact, discovered and turned to man's use the very 
heartbeats of our earth. 

"Whatever electricity may be," he continued, "it 
is a fact that it acts like a fluid, and in this connection, 
we may consider the earth as a great hollow ball 
filled with electricity." He goes on to explain that 
when an impulse is sent into this ball of electricity 
it proceeds to the opposite wall of the earth in 



ARTIFICIAL LIGHTNING 



147 




waves and, finding no outlet it returns to the place 
it Started, but in a series of waves exactly the 
opposite of the outgoing ones, so that the two cross 
and diverge at regular intervals as indicated in the 
diagram. 



A — Oscillator 

B — Opposite side of 

earth 
C — Waves in nodal and 

ventral intervals 



As Tesla put it, "The outgoing and returning 
currents clash and form nodes and loops similar to 
those observable on a vibrating cord." Tesla figured 
from these experiments that the waves varied from 
25 to 70 kilometres from node to node, that they 
could be sent to any part of the globe, and that they 
could be sent in varying lengths up to the extreme 
diameter of the earth. 

In order to prove his discovery Tesla sent an 
impulse into the earth, and received it back, on his 
delicate instrument, in a few seconds. "It is like 
an echo," he explained. "When you shout and in 
a few seconds hear your voice coming back, you do 
not think it is another voice but know immediately 
that it is simply your own vocal vibrations reflected 
by the house, mountainside, or what not. It is 



148 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

just the same with an electrical vibration. The 
stationary terrestrial wave goes through the earth, 
reaches the other side and, finding no outlet, is re- 
flected without any loss of power. Indeed, in some 
cases it is returned with greater power than at first. 5 ' 

"Then in your system the wireless electrical 
current passes through the earth, and not through 
the air," interrupted the scientist. 

"No/' he answered, "it passes through both. It 
is difficult to understand the big things about elec- 
tricity, but just think of the earth as a great ball 
filled with electricity, as I said before. Think of the 
tower of the oscillator as a tube, and of the great 
mushroom-shaped top of the plant as another ball. 
Now from our great alternating current dynamo we 
first fill the ballatthe top of the oscillator with electric- 
ity, and then we make a motion that corresponds to 
squeezing it. What happens? Just what happens 
wiien you have two rubber balls connected with a tube. 
You squeeze one of them, and push the air, or water, 
into the other ball. In that way we push the electric- 
ity into the earth, but it comes back to us on the 
stationary waves, from the opposite side, and when 
it does we are ready to give it another mighty push 
with another tremendous squeeze from our dynamo. 
When this is going on the top of the oscillator is 
gathering electricity from the air all the time and 
sending it out to be used wherever there is a receiver 
properly tuned to receive these rates of vibration. 55 



ARTIFICIAL LIGHTNING 149 

"But," again asked our friend, "isn't there a great 
deal of valuable electrical power wasted in that way?" 

"No, there is very little waste," answered the 
electrician, "for this reason: If, for instance, our 
oscillator can generate a hundred thousand or a 
million, or any other number of volts, and we only 
wish to use it for some small purpose on the other 
side of the earth, the receiver at the antipodes takes 
as much power as is needed, and the rest remains 
unused and our oscillator can be run at reduced 
capacity." 

Thus, according to Tesla's plan, the electrical 
energy will be sent into the earth and air by the high 
potential magnifying transmitter or oscillator, the 
stationary electrical waves carry it through the earth 
and the receiving instrument on the other side of the 
world collects the energy to put it to a thousand and 
one purposes of mankind. And do not forget that 
the oscillator and the receiving instrument are so 
tuned to each other that there is no danger, according 
to Tesla's scheme, of different oscillators and receivers 
getting mixed up. 

Before Tesla had discovered the stationary electri- 
cal waves he had gone deep into the mystery of the 
"individualization" of electrical impulses, and as a 
result advanced plans for sending a number of 
messages over one wire without their interfering 
with each other. This study was continued with 
even greater energy, after he had taken the first 



150 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

steps toward the realization of his world telegraphy 
and world telephony without wires. In wireless 
telegraphy as we know its practice to-day, one of 
the serious drawbacks is the interference of other 
operators, both amateur and professional, with impor- 
tant messages. Tesla holds that the simple tuning 
of instruments to one another as is done nowadays 
would not be sufficient, when there were millions 
of currents passing through and around the earth. 
For instance, he says that an instrument tuned to 
a single rate of vibrations would be very apt to come 
into contact with another instrument sending at the 
same rate. Of course the confusion so familiar in 
modern radio-telegraphy w T ould result. Moreover, 
it makes it difficult to send messages that cannot 
be intercepted and read by every wireless operator 
in hearing. "This can be avoided/' continues the 
inventor, "by combining different tones or rates of 
vibration. In actual practice it is found that by 
combining only two tones, a degree of privacy 
sufficient for most purposes is attained. When three 
vibrations are combined it is extremely difficult even 
for a skilled expert to read or disturb signals not 
intended for him. It is vain to undertake to 'cut 
in on' a series of wireless impulses made up of four 
different rates of vibration. The probability of get- 
ting the secret of the combination is as slight as 
of your solving the number combination on the door 
of a safe. From experiments I have concluded that 



ARTIFICIAL LIGHTNING 151 

this individualization will allow the transmission 
of several million different messages. It is inter- 
esting when you think that one world telegraphy 
plant would have a greater capacity than all the 
ocean cables combined." 

In regard to the amount of power to be transmitted, 
Tesla points out that an impulse of low voltage, or 
low horsepower, will carry to the other side of the 
earth without any loss of power, just as easily as a 
high voltage current. "A wire," says Tesla, "offers 
certain resistance to an electrical current causing 
some loss, but not so when it is sent through the 
natural media. The earth is a conducting body of 
such enormous dimensions that there is virtually 
no loss, so that distance means nothing. To the 
average intelligence this will appear incomprehen- 
sible. We are continuously confronted with limita- 
tions, and those truths which are contradicted by our 
senses are the hardest to grasp. For example, one 
of the most difficult tasks was to satisfy the human 
mind that the earth rotated round the sun; for to 
the eye it seemed just the opposite." 

Tesla further pointed out that five-hundred miles 
is about the farthest that high power can be trans- 
mitted by wires with complete success, but that 
without wires, by his system, power can be trans- 
mitted, as we have seen, to any part of the globe 
or the atmosphere about it. 

The plan for a world-wide system of wireless 



152 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

telegraphs and telephones differs considerably from 
the original idea laid down by scientists for radio or 
Hertzian wireless telegraphy. Originally Guglielmo 
Marconi, who first successfully telegraphed without 
wires, and whose system is well known all over the 
world, planned to send his electrical impulses through 
the ether, in the form of Hertzian rays, but later 
the method was amended. The theory advanced 
was that since everything is afloat in the colourless, 
intangible something called ether (not the drug used 
as an anaesthetic), and that since waves of light, heat, 
and electricity travel through ether, it would be 
possible to send electrical impulses through the ether 
in the earth and air, just as well as through the ether 
in a copper wire. In his early experiments Marconi 
used the light rays or waves named after their dis- 
coverer, Hertz, but these were found to be very 
limited, so electrical vibrations of a higher intensity 
were substituted, as we shall see in a later chapter. 
"From the very first, " declared Tesla, "my system 
has been based on a different principle, as you can 
see from what I have told you. For instance, my in- 
vention takes no consideration of light rays in any 
visible or invisible form (and Hertzian rays are in- 
visible light), which can only travel in a straight line. 
Hence, you can see that they could not be used except 
as far as could be seen. In other words, they only 
could be used as far as the horizon, for just as soon as 
the curve of the earth's surface took the receiving in- 



ARTIFICIAL LIGHTNING 153 

strument below the level of the Hertzian waves they 
became ineffective. You see the difference is that 
my system is based on the stationary earth waves, 
along which the electrical currents can pass to any 
distance irrespective of horizon, or matter. 55 

A simple explanation will serve to show the prin- 
ciple of Tesla's theory of wireless telegraphy and 
telephony. We can easily think of a reservoir with 
two openings in the cover filled with some fluid. In 
each of these openings is a piston and above each 
piston is a tuning fork. The two tuning forks must 
be of exactly the same tone or the experiment will 
not work. We strike one of the pistons with the 
tuning fork, and continue to strike it until the fork 
sets up vibrations. The vibrations pass through the 
air, and also communicate vibrations to the piston, 
which in turn passes the vibrations on to the fluid in 
the reservoir. These vibrations naturally continue 
through the reservoir, as waves, just the same as 
when we throw a pebble into a calm pond and watch 
the waves radiate out in every direction. The water 
does not advance, but merely moves up and down. 
The waves, however, advance. So with the waves set 
up by the tuning fork, and they set up an oscillation 
of the piston at the other side, agitating the tuning 
fork in unison with the sound vibrations coming 
through the air. 

It is just the same, declares Tesla, with two of his 
oscillators set up on the earth's surface and tapping 



154 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

the great sea of electricity, which he says is in the 
earth. The oscillators correspond to the tuning 
forks, the reservoir to the earth, and the fluid in the 
reservoir to the electrical currents with which he 
says the interior of the earth is alive. Exactly 
attuned, Tesla says, the vibrations set up by the 
sender will be communicated to the receiver through 
the earth and through the air. 

"Now, with the development of the world system/' 
continued Tesla, "we shall be able to telephone 
without wires just as well as telegraph, and to any 
part of the world just as easily as we now talk to a 
friend in an adjoining house over the modern wire 
circuits." 

Before going with Doctor Tesla to his great plant 
out on Long Island to see how he is carrying on these 
tremendous theories of his, the boy asked him a few 
more questions about them, for it is a big and intri- 
cate question. 

"What application will you first make of the wire- 
less transmission of power?" 

"My first concern," replied the magician of elec- 
tricity, "will be to make air and water navigation safe. 
We have plenty of demonstrations of the value of 
the wireless telegraph in saving human lives when 
ships are in danger, in the Republic and Titanic 
disasters. But also we know that the wireless can 
be greatly improved upon. With a perfect system 
of communication, both by wireless telegraph and 



ARTIFICIAL LIGHTNING 155 

telephone, consider what it would mean to the 
navigators of air and ocean craft. 

"By the art of telautomatics, which is a part of the 
broad scheme for the wireless transmission of power, 
many of the worst dangers of air and water naviga- 
tion will be avoided, which is right in line with the 
modern tendency of preventing trouble rather than 
waiting for it to happen before remedying it." He 
then went on to enumerate the various telautomatic 
devices that will be carried by ocean liners and air- 
ships of the future, as mentioned in the early part of 
this chapter. 

"Just for instance, how could telautomatics have 
saved the Titanic?" the inventor was asked. 

"You understand, of course," answered Tesla, 
"that the devices I propose would be of almost 
inconceivable sensitiveness. They would be the 
centre of electrical waves, and, as soon as the iceberg 
got into the path of these waves from the wireless 
transmission plant to the ship, it would cause the 
electricity to register an impression of danger ahead. 
Of course mariners would become so expert in the 
reading of these danger signals that they could tell 
the meaning of each one, and alter their course or 
reverse their engines according to the needs of the 
case." 

"How much have you accomplished in telauto- 
matics at this time?" 

"I have made a little submarine boat that will 



156 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

answer to every necessary impulse. The boat con- 
tained its own motive power in a storage battery and 
gear for propulsion, steering sidewise, or upward or 
downward, and all other accessories necessary for 
its operation. All of these were worked from a 
distance by wireless impulses, sent by an oscillator 
to the circuit in the boat through which magnets and 
other devices operated the interior mechanism. 

"This proved to me the possibility of a high 
development of telautomatics. When my system 
is complete, a crewless ship may be sent from any 
port in the world to any other port propelled by 
wireless energy from a power plant anywhere on the 
face of the earth, and controlled absolutely by telauto- 
matics." 

Tesla's plan for aerial navigation is even more 
startling than that for crewless ocean liners. He 
thinks that the airships of the future w T ill be propelled 
by wireless power and that they will have, neither 
planes nor other supporting surfaces, such as we are 
so familiar with nowadays. Neither will they be 
supported by gas bags like balloons and dirigibles. 
The inventor thinks they will be compact and just as 
airworthy as ocean liners are seaworthy. They will be 
tightly enclosed, so that the terrific rush of air through 
the high altitudes will not strangle the passengers 
and crew. He sees no reason why the airships of 
the future should not travel at a rate of several 
hundred miles an hour, so that you could leave San 



ARTIFICIAL LIGHTNING 157 

Francisco in the morning and be in New York in 
time for a six o'clock dinner, and the theatre, or 
cross the Atlantic in a night. 

"How will these airships be propelled?" the boy 
asked. 

"By engines driven with power supplied by our 
great oscillator wherever we care to erect it. These 
engines will work with such incredible force that 
they will make of the air above them a veritable rope 
to sustain them at any desired altitude, while they 
will make of the air in front of them a rope to pull 
them forward at a high rate of speed." Tesla con- 
tinues to say that these ships can be made just as 
large as it is practicable to make their landing stages, 
or small enough for one or two passengers. 

In the waterfalls of the United States alone, he 
pointed out, there are twenty-five hundred million 
horsepower of electrical energy. Niagara Falls could 
supply more than one fifth of all the power now used 
in this country, he says. Moreover, none of the great 
sites, such as those in the far Northwest, are developed 
to their highest state, because of the difficulty in 
transmitting the power over long distances to where 
it is used. 

"It must be borne in mind," said Tesla, "that 
electrical energy obtained by harnessing a waterfall 
is probably fifty times more effective than fuel energy. 
Since this is the most perfect way of rendering the 
sun's energy available the direction of the future 



158 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

material development of man is clearly indicated. 
He will live on 'white coal/" 

"Doctor Tesla, can you tell us, please, just how 
far you have developed this invention for the wireless 
transmission of power?" 

"Well," answered the electrical inventor, "the 
best way to tell you is to show you what has been 
done so far." In order to see Tesla's great plant 
we must follow the scientist and his boy friend out 
to Bay Shore, L. I., where, overlooking Long Island 
Sound, we see a great mushroom -shaped steel network 
tow^er surmounting a low building — the first of 
Tesla's many proposed high potential magnifying 
transmitters. 

"So far," saidTesla of his power plant where the 
first attempts at wireless transmission are being 
made, "only about three million horsepower has 
been harnessed by my system of alternating current 
transmission. This is little, but it corresponds never- 
theless to adding to the world's population sixty 
million indefatigable laborers, working virtually with- 
out food or pay." 

As the boy approached the power plant he was 
impressed by the great size of the tower and its 
circular top, as shown in the photograph. It is 
this circular top, with its conductive apparatus s 
that gathers the electricity from the air and 
from the dynamo, and sends it forth in great 
waves both through the air and through the earth. 



ARTIFICIAL LIGHTNING 159 

The tower is 185 feet high, from the ground to the 
top, and from the ground to the edge of the cupola 
it is 153 feet. The diameter of the cupola floor is 65 
feet. The cupola can be reached by both a staircase 
and an elevator, but it would hardly be healthy for 
any one to be within the network of electrical con- 
ductors when the plant was working. Inside the 
v building are the high power alternating dynamos 
and underneath it extends the ground wire from the 
cupola, through which the electricity is pumped into 
the ground in great spurts at the rate of more than 
a hundred thousand spurts a second. At this plant 
Tesla plans to gather and concentrate millions of 
horsepower of electrical energy and then, in the ways 
we have seen, send it out to be used in a thousand 
different ways. 

"This is merely an experiment," declared Tesla. 
" We can telegraph and carry on other such operations 
as require only a small amount of power from here, 
but it is nothing compared to the great power plants 
we will erect in the future." 

"Is it necessary," asked the boy, "to have your 
power plant erected near the waterfall, or other 
means of producing the electricity?" 

"No, it is not. This plant, for instance, can be 
made a great receiving station for electric power 
from all the great hydro-electric sites, and from it we 
hope to be able to send out electrical waves that will 
run our ships, airships, trains and street ears, carry 



160 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

our voices, light our houses, and turn the wheels 
of our factories. It is better, however, to have the 
plants located close to the seats of power, and to have 
a greater number of plants." 

"How much horsepower did you say this plant 
would send out?" 

"Only a mere trifle of three million horsepower, 
but of course this is only an experiment. To be 
done properly the thing must be done on a large 
scale, and the time will come — not necessarily 
remote — when we will be carrying on the whole 
programe embraced by the wireless transmission of 
power. The cost of wireless power I estimate would 
be about one sixteenth of that of the present system." 

"When you are sending such tremendous voltages 
won't it be very dangerous to be anywhere in the 
vicinity of a plant, much less anywhere that the 
electricity might be brought from the earth?" 

"No, for the power is so well harnessed that we 
can send it just where we want it and nowhere else. 
Of course, on the other hand, if we wanted to make 
trouble with this well-harnessed lightning we could 
make a terrible disturbance in the earth and on the 
surface of the earth." 

"What about lightning?" 

"That is one of the things we had to guard against 
right from the very first, and I can tell you that 
lightning will not bother us a bit, although I cannot 
give you the details of our method of avoiding it. 



ARTIFICIAL LIGHTNING 161 

"When we are using the plant at night, however, 
there will be a display far more beautiful than 
lightning, all about the cupola in the form of 
a great halo of electric light visible for miles 
around." 

Before we leave this fascinating subject of the wire- 
less transmission of power let us ask Doctor Tesla 
about the effect of his invention on war. 

" The wireless transmission of power will first be a big 
factor in promoting world peace, as I said before, be- 
cause through the great improvement in communica- 
tion it will lead to a better understanding between 
nations and break down many of the old prejudices 
that have lived for so many thousands of years. It 
will facilitate travel and commerce so that a citizen 
of the United States will find it as simple and cheap to 
travel abroad as he now finds it to travel in the 
neighbouring state. His commercial interests also 
will spread to foreign countries, and the nations 
will be so linked with one another socially and com- 
mercially that war will be out of the question. 

"However, in case war should break out between 
the nations it will be a conflict of such gigantic 
proportions, and carried on with such tremendous 
death-dealing machines, that it will surpass our 
wildest dreams. 

"For one thing, the new art of controlling electri- 
cally the movements and operations of individualized 
automata at a distance without wires will soon 



162 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

enable any country to render its coast impregnable 
against all naval attacks. 

"I have invented a number of improvements of 
this plan, making it possible to direct a telautomaton 
torpedo, submersible at will, from a distance much 
greater than the range of the largest gun, with 
unerring precision, upon the object to be destroyed. 
What is still more surprising, the operator will not 
need to see the infernal engine or even know its 
location, and the enemy will be unable to interfere, 
in the slightest, with its movements by any electrical 
means. One of these devil-telautomata will soon be 
constructed, and I shall bring it to the attention of 
governments. The development of this art must 
unavoidably arrest the construction of expensive 
battleships as well as land fortifications, and revolu- 
tionize the means and methods of warfare. The 
distance at which it can strike, and the destructive 
power of such a quasi-intelligent machine being for 
all practical purposes unlimited, the gun, the armour 
of the battleship, and the wall of the fortress, lose 
their import and significance. One can prophesy 
with a Daniel's confidence that skilled electricians 
will settle the battles of the near future, if battles 
we must have. 

"The future of wireless power development," ex- 
plained the inventor, "may render it folly for any 
nation to have afloat a vessel of war. The secret 
of another nation's scheme of selectivity or combina- 



ARTIFICIAL LIGHTNING 163 

tion of vibrations might be disclosed to the enemy, 
when the guns of their own vessels might be turned 
against sister ships and a whole fleet destroyed by 
shells from their own guns, or their magazines might 
be exploded by the enemy at will. However, should 
there be battleships in the wireless future, they will 
be crewless. They will be manoeuvred, their guns 
will be loaded, aimed, and fired, and their torpedoes 
discharged with unerring accuracy, by the director 
of naval warfare seated before a telautomatic switch- 
board on land. 

"The time will come, as a result of my discovery," 
says Tesla, "when one nation may destroy another 
in time of war through this wireless force: great 
tongues of electric flame made to burst from the 
earth of the enemy's country might destroy not only 
the people and the cities, but the land itself. I realize 
that this is indeed a dangerous thing to advocate. 
At first thought it might mean the annihilation of 
the nations of the world by evilly disposed individ- 
uals. The public might at first look upon the per- 
fection of such an invention as a calamity. We say 
that all inventions assist the criminal in his work. 
To-day the safe burglar despises the use of dynamite, 
turning to electrical contrivances to cut the lock from 
a safe. It is fortunate for the world, therefore, that 
90 per cent, of its people are good, and that only 10 
per cent, are evilly disposed: otherwise all invention 
might be turned more greatly to evil than to good." 



CHAPTER V 
THE MOTION-PICTURE MACHINE 

MACHINES THAT MAKE SIXTEEN TINY PICTURES PER 
SECOND AND SHOW THEM AT THE SAME RATE 

MAGNIFIED SEVERAL THOUSAND TIMES MOTION 

PICTURES IN SCHOOL — OUR BOY FRIEND SEES THE 
WHOLE PROCESS OF -MAKING A MOTION-PICTURE PLAY. 

I HAVE just been to the moving-picture show/ 5 
said the young man whose inquiring turn of mind 
has brought him into touch with so many recent 
inventions. His friend in the laboratory had just 
finished a very successful chemical experiment and 
seemed glad to see the boy. 

"Did the pictures move very much?" he asked 
with a smile. 

"Of course they did. They moved all the time." 

"No, they only seemed to move, for as a matter 

of fact there are no such things as 'moving pictures.' 

We call them 'motion pictures' now, for that comes 

nearer to expressing the idea. 

"Cinematography, which is the technical name for 
the whole art of motion pictures, is based on one of 
nature's defects, whereas most inventions are based 

164 



THE MOTION-PICTURE MACHINE 165 

on some of nature's perfect processes. The de- 
fect is called by the scientists the persistence 
of vision, which means that after you look at an 
object, and it is quickly taken from before your 
eyes, the image remains there for the fraction of a 
second. 

''With this in mind you will see how the cinemato- 
graph is simply still photography worked out so as 
to show a series of snapshots at such speed that the 
eye cannot notice the change from one picture to 
another, but will see only the changing positions of 
the figures. Each picture shows the figures in a 
little different position, in the same order that they 
move, so that the whole series thrown on the screen 
at high speed shows the figures moving just as they 
do in real life." 

"But where does visual persistence come in?" 
asked the youth. 

"It would be plain if you could seethe pictures 
thrown on the screen twenty times as slowly as they 
are, for each snapshot of each stage of motion must 
be displayed separately. It must remain perfectly 
still for an instant and then must be moved 
away while the shutter of the projecting machine is 
closed. When the shutter is opened again the next 
picture is thrown on the screen. Now, through the 
persistence of vision, the image of the first picture 
remains in your brain, photographed on the retina 
of your eye, while the shutter is closed, and you are 



166 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

not conscious that there is nothing on the white 
screen before your eyes. 

"The scientific explanation of this is simple enough : 
After an image has been recorded by your eye it will 
remain in the brain for an instant even after the 
object has been removed. Then it fades slowly away 
and gives place to the next image sent along the 
optic nerve from the eye. Thus the eye acts as a 
sort of dissolving lantern for the motion -picture man, 
and lets one image fade into another without show- 
ing any perceptible change in pictures. Thus the 
'moving picture' is only a scientifically worked out 
illusion of motion." 

The scientist went on to say that with marvellously 
constructed machines this scientific fact has been 
turned to such account that boys and girls in some 
of the schools now study geography partly from 
motion pictures, and some of the most wonderful 
sights of nature are seen every day by millions of 
people as they sit comfortably in their seats in the 
motion-picture theatre. A few years ago, before 
the invention of cinematography, the magic lantern 
was largely used, as many boys will remember; but 
it could only show scenes in which there was no 
movement — or in other words, scenes that were 
confined to still-life photography. Nowadays every 
boy is familiar with motion pictures depicting great 
historical occurrences, parades, inaugurations, coro- 
nations, volcanoes in eruption, earthquakes, buildings 



THE MOTION-PICTURE MACHINE 167 

burning and crumbling, railroad wrecks, shipwrecks, 
scenes in every country in the world and plays of 
every imaginable kind. 

The motion-picture photographer takes pictures in 
the frozen North, and in the densest tropical jungles. 
He goes close to the craters of volcanoes in eruption 
to make a film of the terrifying flow of molten lava, 
and he sails the seas in the worst storms, that boys 
and girls who have never seen the ocean may under- 
stand its mighty upheavals. One motion-picture 
outfit was taken to the Arctic regions off the coast 
of Alaska where the volcanic activity in Behring Sea 
frequently causes new islands to spring from the 
ocean, or old ones to sink out of sight, in an effort 
to record on the motion-picture film the birth of a 
new island or the death of an old one. 

"Ever connected with scientific research, cinema- 
tography," said the boy's friend, "is now one of the 
important branches of recording the phenomena 
of nature through which great scientific discoveries 
are made. Of late years we have heard much about 
germs, and the science of germs called bacteriology. 
A great deal has been learned about this most im- 
portant factor in the preservation of our health, 
through the study of disease germs, by watching 
their activities through the medium of the cinema- 
tograph. The little parasites are photographed under 
a very high power microscope and the film is cast 
upon a screen in the usual way. 



168 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

"Also exploring parties and parties that go into 
remote places to search for additions to our store of 
scientific knowledge invariably carry motion -picture 
outfits. One of the most notable examples of this 
was the exposition of Lieut. Robert F. Scott in his 
search for the South Pole. Lieutenant Scott carried 
many hundreds of feet of standard film, a good 
camera, and a portable developing outfit, with which 
he made pictures of the Antarctic Continent, in 
order to show the world the things that he and his 
men risked their lives to see. 

"As I said before, the cinematograph is rapidly 
growing as an educational force, and Thomas A. 
Edison, the pioneer inventor and the leader in the 
development of the cinematograph, declares that 
it will in a short time completely do away with books 
in the study of geography. It is already in use 
in several special school and college courses, and with 
the improvements in the non-inflammable film, which 
will be explained later, it can be taken up far more 
extensively. 5 ' 

The man went on to say that in this connection 
Mr. Edison, who had been watching the schoolwork 
of his own twelve-year-old son Theodore, recently 
said in the magazine The World To-day (now Hearst's 
Magazine) : 

"I have one of the best moving-picture photog- 
raphers in the world in Africa. I told him to land at 
Cape Town, and to take everything in sight between 



THE MOTION-PICTURE MACHINE 169 

there and the mouth of the Nile. His pictures will 
show children what Kaffirs are and how they live. 
He will show them at work, at play, and in their 
homes. They will be life-size Kaffirs that will run 
and skip or work right before the children's eyes. 
But the Kaffirs will be but the smallest part of what 
the African pictures will show. The biggest beasts 
of the jungle — the elephants, lions, rhinos, and 
giraffes — will be shown, not in cages, but in their 
native haunts. The city of Cape Town will be 
shown with its characteristic streets and its shipping. 
The broad veldts over which Kruger's armies 
marched will be shown just as they are, with here 
and there a burgher's cottage. Every step in the 
process of mining gold and diamonds will be put 
upon the film. The Nile will be shown, not as a 
small black line upon a map, but as a body of beauti- 
ful blue water, alternately plunging over cataracts 
and creeping through meadows to the sea. Then 
will come the Pyramids, with natives and tourists 
climbing them, and, lastly, the great cities of Alex- 
andria and Cairo. Would any child stay at home if 
he knew such a treat as this was in store for him 
at school? Would he ever be likely to forget what 
he had learned about Africa? " 

"Of course," continued the man in the laboratory, 
"this is but an example of the use of motion pictures 
in schools. Many of you boys have probably seen 
them in special lectures on other subjects, for they can 
be used to show how people live and work in every 
part of the world and how the various commercial 
products that so largely govern our lives are made." 



170 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

But the motion-picture man, he explained, is not 
at all dependent upon what really happens for his 
films, because if he cannot train the eye of his camera 
on some occurrence that he desires to transfer to a 
film, he reproduces it in a studio, spending thousands 
and thousands of dollars, if necessary for actors, 
scenery and stage fittings. Nothing is too difficult 
for the motion-picture man, and he has never proposed 
a feat so daring but what he could find plenty of 
actors willing to take the necessary parts. Battles, 
scenes from history, sessions of Congress, railroad 
wrecks, earthquakes and hundreds of other spectacles 
have been planned, staged and acted out by the 
makers of cinematograph films, while, of course, all 
the plays that we see on the screen are planned and 
carefully rehearsed before they are photographed. 

This all means that cinematography has become 
a gigantic industry, giving employment to hundreds of 
actors, photographers, and the army of men and 
women engaged in making and showing the films, to 
say nothing of the thousands of picture theatres that 
have sprung up in every city and town in the country. 

While the boy's friend w r as telling him these things 
about the adventurous life of the motion -picture 
man, the listener sat spellbound. 

"I'd love to see some motion pictures made/ 5 he 
said. "The machines must be wonderful/' 

"Well," answered the scientist, "we can do that, 
and if you'd like we can go up to one of the motion- 



THE MOTION-PICTURE MACHINE 171 

picture studios some day soon and see the whole 
process from beginning to end." 

He was as good as his word, and several days later 
they were initiated into all the tricks of cinematog- 
raphy at one of the biggest laboratories in the coun- 
try. We will follow them there and see what they 
found out about the machines by which motion 
pictures are made and shown. 

With the fact clear in mind that cinematography 
is simply a series of snapshots of figures in motion, 
taken at high speed and thrown on a screen at a 
similar rate so that the human eye is tricked 
into sending to the brain an impression of moving 
figures rather than a series of still photographs, the 
various machines necessary in cinematography will 
not be difficult to understand. 

Before there can be a cinematograph play there 
must be a negative film upon which the pictures are 
taken, a camera to take the pictures, an apparatus 
for developing them, a positive film which corre- 
sponds to the printing paper in still photography, 
upon which the pictures are printed from the negative 
film, a printing machine to print the positives from 
the negatives, and lastly a projecting machine to 
throw the picture upon the screen in the schoolroom, 
college lecture room, or theatre. 

Every boy who is an amateur photographer is 
familiar with the photographic film. Up to the 
time the method for making practical cinema to- 



172 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

graph films was discovered in this country, scientists 
vainly tried to portray motion by the use of photo- 
graphic plates, but had little success. In a very 
short time after Eastman had announced the dis- 
covery of a celluloid substance that was transparent, 
strong and flexible, light, and compressible into a 
small space, Edison announced a machine for show- 
ing motion pictures. 

The film base, or, in other words, the material 
which takes the place of the glass used in glass plates, 
was discovered by George Eastman in 1889, after 
years of painstaking experiment with dangerous 
chemicals. The base is a kind of guncotton called 
by chemists pyroxylin, which is mixed in wood 
alcohol. The guncotton is made by treating flax 
or cotton waste with sulphuric and nitric acids. After 
the guncotton and the wood alcohol have been 
thoroughly stirred up, the mixture looks like a thick 
syrup, but it is about as dangerous a syrup as ever 
was brewed, for its ingredients are those of the most 
powerful explosives. Its technical name is cellulose- 
nitrate. It is poured out on a polished surface, dried, 
rolled, trimmed, and after being coated with the 
sensitive material that makes it valuable for photog- 
raphy, is ready for delivery to the motion -picture 
maker in lengths up to 400 feet. 

One of the interesting points to remember about 
these films is that although they are made in lengths 
up to 400 feet they are all one and three eighths of 







— 




o 






~3 2 



bo 



3 



- 




THE MOTION-PICTURE PROJECTOR 

This is the standard Edison projector from two points of view, snowing 
its complicated mecharism as clearly as possible 



THE MOTION-PICTURE MACHINE 173 

an inch wide, and the three eighths of an inch is 
given over to a margin at each side of the picture. 
That leaves a width for each picture on the film of 
just one inch. The height of each picture is three 
quarters of an inch. Fancy a photograph one inch 
by three quarters of an inch ! No matter how clear 
it is you could not see with the naked eye all its de- 
tails, and so it is in the cinematograph picture. 
It is so clear and sharp that when put under a 
good magnifying glass details that cannot be seen 
by the human eye are noticed. Now fancy mul- 
tiplying the area of each little picture 2,700 times, 
and think of the chance for magnifying imperfec- 
tions! And yet that is the amount that each 
picture is magnified in throwing it on a screen of the 
average size. 

The films are coated with the sensitive emulsion 
in two degrees. The negative films must be as 
sensitive as possible to light, as they are intended to 
receive the shortest possible exposure, while the 
positive films, or the ones which correspond to the 
print paper in still photography, are made less sen- 
sitive to light, inasmuch as they are exposed for a 
longer time in the printing machine. 

Fireproof films are probably one of the most im- 
portant developments in the whole great motion- 
picture industry, for through these, schools, colleges, 
churches, lecture halls, and other public places not 
fitted with the fireproof box in which the motion- 



174 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

picture operator works, can have the advantage of 
cinematography. 

It was a difficult matter to find a non-inflammable 
film, for science has not yet discovered a base that 
can be made without cellulose, but the base we know 
to-day was treated so as to be non-explosive and 
practically non-inflammable. This film base is called 
cellulose-acetate, and when it is exposed to an exces- 
sive heat, as, for instance, the beam of the motion- 
picture lamp when the film is not moving, or when it 
touches a flame, it melts but does not blaze up. In 
the melting it gives off a heavy smoke, but there is 
no serious danger from this, as there is from the 
spurting flames from an exploding cellulose-nitrate 
base. 

The films are packed in metal airtight and light- 
proof boxes and sent to the motion -picture firms, where 
they begin a complicated and an interesting career. 
The first stage is the perforating machine, through 
wilich all films, whether negative or positive, must go. 
The holes are made along the two edges of the cellu- 
loid strips, just as shown in the picture opposite 
page 176. There are sixty -four holes to the foot, on 
each side of the film, and each hole is oblong-shaped, as 
can be seen, w T ith a width of about one eighth of an 
inch and a depth of about one sixteenth of an inch. 
This is known as the Edison Standard Gauge, and 
it is observed by practically all the motion -picture 
firms in the world. 



THE MOTION-PICTURE MACHINE 175 

The perforations along the edges of the films fur- 
nish the means for drawing them through the camera, 
printing machine, and projector; and as the correct 
movement of the films is one of the important factors 
in making good pictures, they must be absolutely 
mathematically exact. A fault in perforation of even 
as much as one thousandth part of an inch is apt 
to cause the film to buckle in the camera or projector 
and ruin the whole thing, 

There are several different perforating machines in 
use now, and all of them are claimed by their makers 
to be perfect. It will not be necessary for us to take 
one of these machines to pieces further than to see 
that the holes along the edges of the films are punched 
by hardened steel punches. The films unwind from 
one bobbin, pass through the perforating device, and 
wind upon another bobbin. Of course the work must 
be done in absolute darkness, except for a small 
ruby lamp, as the films are so sensitive to light that 
any rays other than faint red would spoil them. 

After perforation the negatives and positives are 
ready for use. The negative goes to the photog- 
rapher in its light-tight metal box to be run off in 
making a film of a historical scene, a comedy, some 
wonderful phenomenon of science, or any one of a 
million different subjects. Just for the sake of 
seeing everything in its proper order we will assume 
that the negative is about to be used in portraying 
a comedy about the troubles of a book agent, and 



176 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

that it is all done in the studio where the scientist 
and his boy friend watched this very film made. 

Now for a look into a motion -picture camera — 
something few people get, because the competition 
among the various cinematographers is keen, and 
those who hold patents on cameras fear infringement. 

The camera, which is enclosed in a strong mahog- 
any box, stands upon a tripod. It is about eighteen 
inches long, eighteen inches high, and four inches 
wide. (This size varies with the make, and kind 
of work required.) The left side opens on a hinge, 
while on the right side are the ground glass finder, 
the distance gauge, and a dial to register the number 
of feet of film used. In the rear of the camera is a 
small hole which connects with a tube running 
straight through the box so that the operator look- 
ing through can sight it like a telescope, before the 
film is exposed. When the sighting and focusing 
are completed the opening is closed with a light-tight 
cap, and the film can be threaded through the camera. 
Having no bellows for focusing like an ordinary cam- 
era, the lens of the motion-picture camera is moved 
back and forward a short distance in the little tube 
in which it is set, to aid in the focusing. Of course 
the lenses of these wonderful snapshot machines are 
the best that money can buy and the factories can 
turn out. 

In the rear half of the camera are tw^o boxes. The 
top one holds the unexposed roll of negative, while 




A SECTION OF MOTION-PICTURE FILM 
This is the exact size of the little pictures we see on the screen almost 
life size. Note how slowly the changes appear. It takes only one 
second to take sixteen of these 



THE MOTION-PICTURE MACHINE 



177 



the exposed film is rolled in the bottom one. Roughly- 
speaking, the film unwinds from the top spool, 
passes out of the containing box through a slit, over 
a set of sprockets into the "film gate, " down past the 
lens and shutter, where it is exposed over a lower 
set of sprockets, and through a slit into the lower 
containing box, where it is wound on a spool. 



A — Box for coil of unexposed film. 

A' — Box for coil of exposed film. 

B — Film passing over rollers. 

B' — Exposed film passing over rollers 

C — Cogwheel which draws out film 

D — Teeth which jerk film past lens. 

E — Lens and film-gate. 

H — Cogwheel which draws in exposed film. 



A MOTION-PICTURE CAMERA 

"It looks simple enough, doesn't it?" asked the 
photographer, who was explaining the making of 
a moving-picture play to his visitors. "Well, it is 
a simple idea, but it takes a very complicated and 
a wonderfully accurate machine to accomplish the 
desired result. 

"In the first place our cinematography is just still 
photography at high speed. We have to take approxi- 
mately sixteen snapshots a second, so you can sec 
that it takes a perfect machine to move the film 




178 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

along fast enough so that we can get sixteen good, 
clear, sharp pictures only slightly bigger than a 
postage stamp, on our film between the ticks of your 
watch. 

"Now if you look through the little hole at the 
back of the camera you will see that the scene in 
front of us is in the proper focus, and if you look at 
the little ground glass finder at the side here you 
will see it just the same way, except that it will be 
upside dow r n. Now I will close the telescope focus 
at the rear so that when the film is brought down 
before the lens it w^ill not be light struck." 

The "threading" of the camera then began. "This 
little flap sticking out of this slit in the top box," 
continued the cinematographer, "is the end of the 
film, which is tightly wound up in its holder. You 
notice that I draw it out and thread it between these 
rollers, making sure that the teeth of the sprockets 
enter the perforations along the sides of the film. 
I also make sure that the sensitized side of the film 
is turned out, so that the light coming through the 
lens will strike it first. After the negative has been 
led over the sprockets you notice that it is allowed 
to make a loop of a couple of inches of slack. Then 
it is led into the important device we call the 'film 
gate/ 

'You see the gate is hinged and that these little 
claws or fingers running in grooves take hold of the 
perforations. The next thing is to close the hinged 



THE MOTION-PICTURE MACHINE 179 

gate so that the film is tightly held against the 
aperture , through which the light strikes it and makes 
the picture. Below the gate we let the negative 
make another loop and then thread it over another 
system of rollers and sprockets and so to the slit 
in the lower box, where the exposed negative is 
rolled. 

"The camera is now loaded and threaded and when 
I give the crank by which the wheels are turned 
a few trial turns you can see the way the mechanism 
works. In the first place you must understand that 
the film has to be jerked down with an intermittent 
motion. Don't forget to look for the intermittent 
motion, because, after the persistence of vision, that 
jump and stop, jump and stop, is the most important 
thing in cinematography — intermittent motion! 

"You can see as the crank turns that the sprockets 
pull the film out and guide it along its course, and 
the little fingers jerk it down the space of one picture, 
or three quarters of an inch, at each jump. When 
the fingers are jerking the negative down, the shutter 
must be closed, and when the fingers are making 
their back trip to take a new hold on another length 
of film the strip must be as still as the Washington 
Monument, for the shutter to open, let in the light 
and transfer the image before the lens to the nega- 
tive." 

The photographer turned his crank and all the 
wheels in the camera began to move. The sprockets 



180 THE COY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

working in the perforations pulled out the film 
and made the loop larger. The little fingers entered 
the perforations and jerked the film down, taking 
up some of the slack of the loop. The reason that 
the loop is formed is to prevent the film being torn 
by a hard jerk by the fingers when it is taut. 

"Now if your eye were quick enough — which 
it is not" — said the photographer, "and you could 
see behind the gate, you would see a movement like 
the following repeated sixteen times to the second: 
Crank turns, top sprocket adds three quarters of 
an inch to the top loop, bottom sprocket takes up 
three quarters of an inch of bottom slack loop, fingers 
spring from groove and carry film down three quarters 
of an inch, inconceivably short pause while shutter 
opens and picture is taken; during this pause, while 
film is stationary, fingers jump back into groove, slide 
back to starting point without touching film and 
shutter closes. The shutter is a revolving disk 
between the lens and film, and the holes in the disk 
passing the negative admit the light." 

After a roll of negative film has been exposed it is 
sent to the studio dark room for development. 
Every precaution is taken, of course, that no ray of 
light other than that which comes from the ruby 
lamp shall enter this room where films representing 
hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of dollars are being 
developed. The actual process for developing is 
no different from that used in developing other films, 



THE MOTION-PICTURE MACHINE 181 

but the difficulties in handling a delicate snakelike, 
strip some 300 or 400 feet long and If inches wide 
are tremendous. All amateur photographers appre- 
ciate the difficulties of developing in one string 
a roll of twelve films of a reasonable size, but 
think of handling a roll of film several hundred 
feet long no wider than a ribbon, and holding sixteen 
pictures to each foot of surface! 

The difficulties of scratching, tangling, etc., were 
overcome by systematizing the process. In some 
cinematograph dark rooms the films are wound on 
racks about four by five feet, and then plunged into 
the various baths, which are in vertical tanks of 
convenient size. In yet other dark rooms the films 
are wound upon drums about four feet in diameter 
and revolved in horizontal tanks, only the lower 
part being immersed. The only difference is that 
the racks can be manipulated easier than the drums. 

While in the motion-picture dark room the boy 
visitor asked the photographer in charge whether 
an amateur could step in and develop a few hundred 
feet of film granted that he had the necessary 
materials. 

"Of course he could," came a cheerful voice from 
the darkness. "It's just the same as developing 
a roll of ordinary films, only we do more in a bunch 
than the amateur. If you'll step over here and watch 
this reel that we are now putting into the develop- 
ing bath you'll see that it does just the same as the 



182 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

single film developed in the amateur's dark room/ 5 
After watching this trained photographer and his 
assistant for a few minutes, however, the newcomer 
decided that it was not an amateur's job, but rather 
one of the most delicate operations in all cinematog- 
raphy, for the developer can remedy many faults 
of exposure by bringing out an under-exposed film 
or toning down an over-exposed one. 

Leaving the dark room the next stage of the nega- 
tive is the drying room, where the film still on the 
rack is hung up to dry. This drying is a very difficult 
process because there is great danger of the film 
either becoming too brittle and cracking or of its being 
not hard enough. The air in the drying room has 
to be kept at a certain even temperature and it must 
be filtered so that no dust or impurity can injure 
the film. 

After it has been properly dried the film again is 
wound upon a metal spool, put in an airtight box 
and sent to the assembling room, where the various 
scenes that go to make up the picture play, taken 
at different times and on different rolls of negative, 
are joined together in their proper order to make a 
complete play in a single roll about one thousand feet 
long. 

After the negative film is developed, dried and 
wound upon a metal spool it is sent to the printing 
room, where positive prints are made from the original 
impression. Right here it may be well to say that 



THE MOTION-PICTURE MACHINE 183 

on a negative film or plate in any kind of photography 
white appears black and black appears white — hence 
the name negative. The paper or film upon which 
the print is to be made turns black wherever the 
light strikes it, so that when the negative is laid 
over the positive and exposed to a strong light 
the rays quickly penetrate the white spots on the 
negative and turn the corresponding spots on the 
positive black. The light does not penetrate the 
places on the negative which are black, and con- 
sequently leaves those places on the positive white. 
The result is that the positive shows the image just 
as it appears to the eye. 

The principle of printing positive films, then, is 
the same as the principle of making photographic 
prints or positives from ordinary still photography 
plates or films, but of course it is far more complicated 
because of the mechanical difficulties of bringing 
the two long, unwieldy strips of film together in the 
proper position. The whole process is carried out 
by a machine which takes the place of the printing 
frame into which the amateur so easily puts the 
still-life photographic plate and printing paper. 

There are several motion-picture printing machines 
in use in this country, but in their central idea they 
are similar, as they all pass the negative and positive 
films before a very bright light so that the impressions 
on the negative are transferred to the positive. The 
invention of this machine was a necessity for the 



184 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 



commercial success of motion pictures, for obviously 
it was impossible to lay a strip of film several hundred 
feet long and about an inch wide in a printing frame 
over a positive film of the same length and width. 

The explanation of one printing machine will 
suffice to indicate the general principle. Some of 
the machines are worked by hand power, but in the 



A — A' — Rollers for negative film. 
B — B' — Rollers for positive film. 

C — Film gate where positive is held 
over negative for printing. 
D—D'— Negative film. 

E — Unexposed positive film. 
E' — Exposed, or printed positive film. 
F — Light which, shining through film 
gate, imprints image of negative 
on positive. 




A MOTION- PICTURE 
PRINTING MACHINE 



larger reproduction studios electric power is used 
practically altogether for running the battery of 
printing machines. 

The spool of negative film is slipped on to a spindle 
so that it can unwind easily, and immediately under- 
neath it the roll of unexposed positive film, properly 
perforated along the edges in exactly the same 
way that the negative film is perforated, is sus- 
pended on a similar spindle. Of course the only 



THE MOTION-PICTURE MACHINE 185 

light in the printing room is the photographer's 
ruby lamp. 

The two films unwind and pass downward, with 
the sensitive surfaces to the inside, and the positive 
on the outside of the negative. They are drawn 
together, and with the positive stretched flatly over 
the negative they pass over a pair of smooth rollers 
and toothed sprockets which enter the perforations 
of the two films with mathematical accuracy. They 
then make a small loop and enter a side hinged gate 
which holds them tightly against the printing aper- 
ture. This aperture is a hole just the size and shape 
of each picture on the film, and through it shines 
a very bright light which casts its direct rays upon 
the negative and imprints the image of the negative 
film upon the sensitized surface of the positive film. 
After passing the printing aperture, the two films 
make another small loop, run down to another 
toothed sprocket wheel and roller, and then separate, 
the printed positive being rolled upon one spool 
and the negative upon its spool below. 

The action of this machine is very similar to that 
of the motion-picture camera, for like the device for 
taking the photographs, the movement must be 
intermittent in order to obtain good results. 

If the operator desires to see whether the two films 
are in exactly the right position and everything is 
going smoothly, he can, by the use of a lever in the 
printing gate, drop a little red screen between the 



186 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

light and the films, and by looking through the 
hole see through the unprinted positive, and the 
developed negative, to the light inside. 

After a roll of positive has been printed, it is de- 
veloped by just about the same process as is used 
in bringing out the images on the negative film. 
Then, after it is dried, the various scenes are joined 
together, titles and sub-titles put in, any final 
editing that is necesary is done, and the positive film 
is ready to be put on the projection machine for 
the first trial. 

The preparation of the titles, sub-titles, and other 
explanatory writings that are thrown on the screen 
in the course of a cinematograph play is a compara- 
tively simple matter. The words are written or 
printed out in large letters on cards and photographed 
by a camera with a slower movement than the ones 
used for recording moving figures. The positives 
are made from the negatives so taken, in the same 
way that positives of other films are made, and after 
development and drying are ready to be joined to 
the film in the proper places. 

Every firm engaged in the fascinating business of 
making and reproducing cinematographic plays gives 
the most careful and painstaking attention to the 
first "performance" of a film. Of course it is held 
in private before only the officials and a few critics 
invited for the exercise of their judgment. The 
event amounts to the same thing as the dress re- 



THE MOTION-PICTURE MACHINE 187 

hearsal of a play to be reproduced upon the stage, 
and any changes that are necessary in the judgment 
of the critics cause just about as much trouble. 
Any one of a hundred things may be wrong. Some 
little incongruous detail in the scenery may be 
noticed, some jarring gesture by an actor or a scene 
in which the action does not proceed fast enough. 

If the officials of the firm decide that a film is 
below their standard, parts must be cut out, and new 
parts photographed over again until the whole 
thing suits requirements. Sometimes one scene 
must be done over many times before it suits ex- 
actly, and several hundred feet of film wasted. At 
a cost of about three cents a foot, it is plain that the 
waste in film alone is great, but when a big scene 
with a hundred or so actors in it has to be done over 
again, the cost of assembling the company, paying 
their salaries and other expenses is enormous. 

Finally, when the officials themselves are satisfied 
with a film it is thrown on the screen for the board 
of censors in the various cities, and if it measures up 
to standard, and contains no objectionable features, 
it is ready for public reproduction, 

When all this is done, the printing machine again 
comes into play, and as many prints of the negative 
as are needed are struck off, for in cinematography, 
as in still photography, it is a simple matter to run 
off as many prints as are desired, once a good nega- 
tive is made. These prints then are sent out to 



188 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

as many theatres, in as many different cities, as 
desire them, and released for public view on the same 
day in every theatre in the country. 

Having looked at the motion-picture camera, and 
at the complicated process for developing and print- 
ing the films, we are now ready to climb into the 
little fireproof box from which comes the beam of 
light that throws the pictures on the screen. This is 
the projector and it is probably the most complicated 
of all the machines used in cinematography. As 
it was a development through the application 
of well-known mechanical principles we will not 
go into this subject more deeply than merely to 
understand its central principle, which is inter- 
mittent motion. 

The result toward which the inventors worked 
was a magic lantern such as was familiar to every 
boy ten years ago, that would throw upon the screen 
the tiny consecutive pictures on the film, with such 
speed, and at the same time so clearly and steadily, 
that the effect would be that of figures in motion. 
Most boys will remember the flickering, flashing and 
jumping that used to be noticeable in motion pic- 
tures, and many are probably aware that it was the 
improvement of the projecting machine that did away 
with these objectionable features. 

The essential parts of the projecting machine are 
the lantern with its light and lens, and the device for 
running the positive film before the light with the 



THE MOTION-PICTURE MACHINE 189 

proper intermittent motion. It might be said gen- 
erally that the projecting machine looks like a magic 
lantern, but on close examination it will be seen to be 
an extremely complicated affair. 

The powerful electric light, usually an arc light, 
which is placed in a metal box a few inches behind the 
rest of the projector, directs its rays through the 
glass condensers, thence through the film, and thence 
through the lens, which throws the image upon the 
white screen or curtain. The condensers are made 
of two carefully ground glass parts. The first is 
dish shaped, with the concave side turned in toward 
the light and the convex side turned outward. 
Immediately against it is another condenser the 
same diameter and convex on both sides so that the 
collected rays from the dished part are shot forward 
to a point where they will all converge. This point 
is the centre of the lens. From the lens the rays of 
light are projected in a widening beam to the white 
screen on which the pictures appear. 

The film is passed before the beam of light at a 
point between the condensers and the lens, so that 
the image is projected through the lens. The film 
is run before the light with the figures upside down, 
like in the ordinary stereopticon, and the lens turns 
the image right side up again. 

The most interesting part of the solution of the 
problem is the advantage taken of the persistence 
of vision. Photographed at the rapid rate of sixteen 



190 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

a second, and thrown upon the screen at the same 
rate of sixteen a second, it is plain that the stage of 
motion shown in the pictures every sixteenth of a 
second is reproduced. With the inability of the 
eye to tell that the screen is merely exhibiting separate 
photographs, the appearance is of motion. In most 
persons this visual persistence is only about one 
twenty-fourth of a second, but that is long enough 
to allow animated photography to be a pleasing 
illusion to them, for it gives the shutter of the 
projector time to hide one picture while the mechan- 
ism moves the film down to the next picture, bring 
the film to a dead stop, and let the shutter open 
again to reveal the next stage of animation. 

The manner in which modern mechanical skill 
took advantage of this physiological defect, proved 
many years ago by the leading scientists, is nearly as 
interesting as this slight defect in nature's own 
camera — the eye. 

Above the film gate is a metal fireproof box (many 
of them are fined with asbestos) in which is the roll 
of unprojected positive film. Below it is another 
similar box in which the film that has been shown is 
wound. The motion, which is directed either by a 
crank turned by hand or by electrical power, is 
the same speed, and practically the same in detail, 
as that of the film in the cinematograph camera. 
From the film box the film runs to a roller, where a 
sprocket enters the all-important perforations and 



THE MOTION-PICTURE MACHINE 191 

draws out the strip to make a small loop above the 
film gate. 

The shutter is placed in front of the lens. It is 
made up of a black metal circular disk, with either 
two or three open spaces, and a similar number of 
solid or opaque spaces. In general it looks like a 
very wide flat aeroplane propeller. Like the move- 
ment of the camera, the film is stationary w r hile the 
shutter is open, and when the shutter is closed the 
film is jerked down three fourths of an inch, or the 
length of one picture, and brought to a dead stop 
by the time the shutter revolves and is open again. 
This is repeated sixteen times every second, so the 
film is cast upon the screen for one thirty-second part 
of a second, and the screen is blank one thirty-second 
part of a second while the shutter is closed and, as 
we might say, the scenes are being changed for the 
next act. Although the movement is just the same 
as in the camera, it may be well for the sake of mak- 
ing the thing perfectly clear to go through the motion 
very slowly. 

For the sake of keeping out of fractions entirely 
too small for our consideration we have assumed that 
in both camera and projecting machine the shutter 
is open one thirty-second part of a second and then 
closed one thirty-second part of a second, the whole 
operation taking one sixteenth of a second. As a 
matter of fact the effort of the experts in animated 
photography is to have the shutter of the camera 



192 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

open for just as brief a space of time as possible, 
and on the other hand it is their effort to have the 
shutter of the projecting machine open just as long 
a space of time as possible, and closed as short a 
time as possible. In other words, they desire to 
shorten the time when there is nothing on the screen, 
and lengthen the time for the eye to photograph 
each image on the brain. By using a little different 
mechanism in the film gate of the projector this is 
accomplished to some extent, as well as obtaining a 
clearer, steadier picture than formerly was shown. 

You will remember that in the camera and printing 
machine the film was jerked down by little teeth or 
fingers. 

The simpler of the two methods in general use on 
projectors now is called the "dog" movement. It is 
composed of an eccentric wheel placed below the film 
gate, with a little roller projecting from it. The wheel 
revolves and once every sixteenth part of a second the 
roller is brought around so that it strikes the film 
and jerks it down the three fourths of an inch that 
makes the space of one picture. 

The other method is known as the "Maltese Cross" 
movement. The name is taken from the fact that 
the chief sprocket wheel is shaped somewhat like 
a Maltese Cross. This wheel, with four notches in 
it, is attached to the sprocket below the film gate, 
and it is driven intermittently by a wheel with a 
pin that enters one of the notches on the Maltese 



THE MOTION-PICTURE MACHINE 193 

Cross wheel at each revolution, and pushes it around 
the space of one quarter of a turn. This of course 
turns the lower toothed sprocket and jerks the film 
down the space of one picture. On the next revolu- 
tion of the driving wheel the pin enters the next 
notch, turns the Maltese Cross wheel another 
quarter of a turn, and, by the motion imparted to the 
sprocket, jerks the film down another three quarters 
of an inch, thereby pulling another picture into 
place as the shutter opens. 

Recent improvements on this movement have large- 
ly done away with the jar resulting from the pin catch- 
ing the notches in the cross. The wheel that looks like 
a Maltese Cross has, instead of four notches, three 
grooves, dividing the wheel into three equal parts just 
as if a pie were cut into three equal parts but the knife 
stopped short, leaving a solid hub in the centre. 
The space between each groove represents the length 
of one picture on the film. Without going into a 
long, tiresome, technical explanation of this very 
important little feature of the projecting machine, 
it will suffice to say that the three-groove wheel is 
connected with the sprocket underneath the film 
gate. Near it is a revolving arm, and upon this 
arm is a horizontal bar. When the arm makes a 
revolution, and reaches a point where it touches 
the three-divided wheel, the mechanical adjustment 
is so fine that the horizontal bar enters the groove, 
and the revolution of the arm carries the throe- 



194 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

divided wheel around one third of a revolution — or 
the space from one groove to another — turns the 
sprocket and pulls the film down the space of one 
picture, with a quick steady pull. After getting 
this far, the arm on its upward course leaves the 
three-divided wheel, which stands still while the 
shutter is open until the arm gets around again, and 
as the shutter closes pulls the sprocket around another 
space. 

The strong light concentrated upon the film, in 
just the same way that you concentrate the sun's 
rays upon your hand with a burning glass, is very 
apt to set the film afire, particularly if through any 
slip in the machinery it stops in its rapid progress 
of about a foot a second. As machinery is not 
infallible, the manufacturers have invented various 
safety devices for protecting the film in case the 
machinery stops. Of course this is not necessary 
when non-imflammable film is used. 



CHAPTER VI. 
ADVENTURES WITH MOTION PICTURES 

PERILOUS AND EXCITING TIMES IN OBTAINING MOTION 
PICTURES. — HOW THE MACHINE CAME TO BE IN- 
VENTED, AND THE NEWEST DEVELOPMENTS IN CINE- 
MATOGRAPHY 

WITH a clear understanding of the mechanism 
of the various motion-picture machines in 
mind, we are free to go on with the scientist 
and our young friend to the exciting times experi- 
enced by actors and photographers in making the 
pictures that delight people all over the world. First, 
however, let us briefly look back over the history 
of the art, for there is nothing more interesting than 
to follow up the experiments upon which Thomas A. 
Edison based his invention of the original cinemato- 
graph or kinetoscope. 

Long ago, even before Edison was born, scientists 
tinkered with devices that would picture apparent 
motion, but they were rude attempts and little 
progress was made for many years. The first man 
to take a decisive step toward practical cinematog- 
raphy was Edward (or Eadweard) Muybridge, a 

195 



196 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

photographer who lived in Oakland, Cal.; so he is 
rightly called the father of motion pictures. 

Muybridge had been experimenting with snap- 
shot cameras, as in those days instantaneous photog- 
raphy wdth wet plates was comparatively new, and, 
being something of an artist as well as a photographer, 
he decided that snapshot photographs of animals 
and men while running, jumping, and walking would 
greatly aid artists in transferring to their canvases 
the exact positions of the figures they wished to paint. 
In 1872 the people of California were considerably 
excited over the feat of Governor Leland Stanford's 
trotting horse Occident, which was the first racer 
west of the Rocky Mountains to make a mile in 
two minutes and twenty seconds, and the Governor 
was having him photographed on every occasion. 

Governor Stanford also wagered that at one time 
during the trotter's stride all four feet were off the 
ground. Muybridge suggested his plan for photo- 
graphing the animal's every movement, while run- 
ning, trotting or walking, as a means of settling the 
bet, and the Governor, very much pleased, gave him 
free access to the stables and race course. 

The photographer built a studio at the course and 
systematically went to work. First, he built a high 
fence along the track and had it painted white. Then 
he securely mounted twenty-four cameras side by 
side along the opposite side of the course and stretched 
thin silk threads from the shutter of each camera 



ADVENTURES WITH MOTION PICTURES 197 

across the track about the height of the horse's knees. 
Occident was then led out and ridden along the 
course so that he would pass between the white 
background and twenty-four cameras. As he came 
to each silk thread his legs broke it and opened the 
shutter of the camera to which it was attached. Thus 
the animal photographed himself twenty-four times 
as he passed over the track and showed that Governor 
Stanford's contention regarding his movements was 
correct. 

Laid in consecutive order in which the photo- 
graphs were taken, each picture showed a different 
stage of the horse's movements, and if the series of 
photographs was held together and riffled over the 
thumb, so that each one would be visible for just 
the fraction of a second, the impression received, 
thanks to the persistence of vision, was that of a 
horse in motion. When Muybridge went to Paris 
the year after taking the photographs of Gov- 
ernor Stanford's horse he received a warm welcome 
from some of the greatest French painters of the 
day. He gave several exhibits of his photographs, 
but carried the work no farther. 

Almost one hundred years before this, several 
brilliant Frenchmen were groping in the darkness 
for some way of showing motion by means of pictures, 
and brought forth a device known as the "Wheel of 
Life," or the Zoetrope. It was simply an enclosed 
cylinder, and upon the inner lower face, which was 



198 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

free to rotate, were placed a series of pictures showing 
the stages of some simple animation, in sequence, 
such as two children seesawing, or a child swinging. 
The upper surface was pierced with long, narrow 
slits, and when one looked through the slits, and the 
lower surface with the pictures on it was rotated, one 
actually saw only one picture at a time, but as they 
passed before the eyes the appearance was of motion. 
Various improvements on this idea were made, and 
silhouette paintings even were thrown on a screen 
so as to give an illusion of motion. 

The development of photography was necessary, 
however, before motion pictures ever could be a 
success. About the time Muy bridge took his pic- 
tures the old wet plate was superseded by the dry 
plate we know to-day, and scientists began the search 
for some material from which they could make film 
base. 

Before the invention of films, motion pictures, as 
they were known at that time, were used chiefly by 
scientists in trying to analyze motion which cannot 
be traced by the human eye. Among the leaders 
in this work was the French scientist Dr. E. J. 
Marey, who studied the flight of birds and the 
movements of animals and men so carefully that he 
wrote a book entitled "Movement," which is still 
used by authorities in scientific research. 

Doctor Marey set up another camera at the 
Physiological Station in Paris with which he and his 



ADVENTURES WITH MOTION-PICTURES 199 

associates made pictures of great scientific value. 
Those were the days of the early experiment with 
flying machines, as will be remembered from Chapter 
II, and the French inventors made careful studies 
of Marey's pictures of bird flight. 

Doctor Marey's stationary camera was a simple 
bellows type which took an exceptionally wide plate. 
The shutter, which was operated by a crank, was 
a disk with slits in it, so that as it turned it inter- 
mittently admitted and shut off the light. Thus, 
as a white-clothed figure passed a dead-black back- 
ground, in front of the camera, the various stages 
of its movements in the course of its trip from one 
side of the camera's focus to the other were faithfully 
recorded on the plate, each slit making an exposure 
of the image on a different section of the plate, show- 
ing the figure in a different position. 

Many machines that were merely developments 
of the old zoetrope were brought out both in the 
United States and Europe, but the greatest obstacle 
to their success was that they were peep-hole machines 
of the kind that flourished in penny arcades a few 
years ago, rather than devices for throwing pictures 
on a screen so that a large number of persons could 
see at the same time. In general, these old-fashioned 
" moving-picture " machines were simply cabinets 
in which were mounted a series of transparencies 
made from pictures representing the stages of some 
simple animation. An electric light illuminated the 



200 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

transparencies and they were rotated so that one 
picture at a time was seen. In some of the more 
improved "wheels of life," such as were shown in 
this country, the transparencies in consecutive order 
were mounted on a hub like the spokes of a wheel 
and were rotated so that one was seen at a time, very 
much like the way Muybridge riffled his horse 
pictures over his thumb. 

All this time two American inventors had been at 
work on the two most perplexing problems in ani- 
mated photography at that time, and it was through 
their achievements that the first practical motion- 
picture machine was given to the world, just as it 
was through the achievements of the Wright brothers 
that the first practical aeroplane was given to the 
world. 

These two men were Thomas A. Edison and 
George Eastman. 

Mr. Edison had been working for several years 
on a motion-picture machine, but was handicapped 
by the lack of a practical film. 

Mr. Eastman, after years of experiment, produced 
the film that made cinematography possible, in 1889. 

With a strong transparent film, flexible, and com- 
pressible, to take the place of the clumsy glass plate, 
Edison was ready to go ahead with his work, started 
years before, and in 1893 the crowxls at the World's 
Fair in Chicago saw the first motion-picture machine. 
It was called a Kinetoscope. 




g 



S 

P 

O 

H 



3 
o 

I 



ADVENTURES WITH MOTION -PICTURES 201 

Simple as it was, thousands and thousands dropped 
nickels into a slot and peeped into the hole at the 
"moving pictures." Some of the boys who read this 
may remember machines like it. The mechanism 
was in a cabinet in which the pictures were shown on 
a positive film. This was about forty feet long and 
was strung backward and forward inside the cab- 
inet on a series of spools in a continuous chain. 
The film passed before the peep-hole and the pictures 
were magnified by a lens. They were illuminated 
by an electric lamp behind them. A rotating 
shutter cut off the light intermittently, so that each 
picture was seen for the fraction of a second, and 
then a period of darkness ensued. The shutter 
was the only attempt at intermittent revealing of 
the pictures, for the film travelled continuously. 

The camera that Edison invented for taking the 
pictures shown in his kinetoscope was in principle 
about the same as the one described earlier in this 
chapter, except that it has been wonderfully improved 
in mechanical accuracy and photographic clearness. 
The hardest problem facing him was the machine 
which would show the pictures to a large number of 
spectators at the same time and do away with the 
old peep-hole machine. The idea of the magic 
lantern immediately presented itself, but the inventor 
quickly saw the necessity of an intermittent motion, 
for if the ribbon of pictures was drawn before the 
beam of light fast enough to give the illusion of 



202 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

motion, each picture was thrown on the screen for 
such a short time that it was too faint to be seen 
easily. From this it was to Edison but a step to 
a practicable projector, and nothing remained but 
to improve its mechanical working. 

Getting motion pictures is the adventurous part 
of the business, for this work requires operators and 
actors who are athletes and who do not know the 
meaning of fear. As pictures of scenery and events 
are taken in every corner of the world — in the 
jungles, in the arctic ice, on mountains and in deserts, 
the photographers all can tell absorbing stories of 
the strange places and things they have filmed. 

In the rough the films are divided into four great 
general classes, with several special classes besides. 
They are scenic, industrial (showing the working of 
some great industry like steel making), topical, and 
dramatic. Scenic and industrial films are simply 
taken at an opportune time, as it is usually not 
necessary to make any advance arrangements, 
though the photographing may incur great risks. 

Topical films, such as the pictures of the recent 
Durbar in India or some other great current event, 
are very valuable when quickly sent broadcast. Of 
course the photographer must have the same news 
instinct that the reporter has to get good topical 
films, for he must get there first and deliver his 
picture "story" to his studio "editors" as quickly 
as possible. The photographers often have hair- 



ADVENTURES WITH MOTION PICTURES 203 

raising adventures in taking such films, as the single 
instance of the man who went up Mount Vesuvius 
during an eruption and took a cinematograph film 
of it will show. 

The greatest variety of experiences, however, is to 
be found in the making of dramatic films — that is, 
motion-picture plays. As every boy know^s, these 
stories have just as wide a range as the books in a 
library. There are plays based on biblical stories, 
and plays dealing with Wild West adventures; there 
are farces, comedies, and tragedies; in fact, there 
is no limit to the variety. These plays, how- 
ever, can be divided roughly into two classes — 
that is, those that are produced on the motion-pic- 
ture studio stage and those produced out of doors 
with the natural surroundings as the stage. The 
interesting things about either kind would fill a 
book the size of this. 

In the early days of cinematography only simple 
shows were attempted, but now nothing is too big 
or too complicated or too expensive for the big 
concerns making pictures in the United States and 
Europe. The first motion-picture studio here was 
simply a portable, glass roofed, black walled shed set 
on a pivot in Edison's yard in Orange, N. J. It was 
called the Black Maria and makes an interesting 
contrast to the great glass studio at Bronx Park, N. 
Y., costing $100,000, in which many of the Edison 
films are now made. All well-equipped motion- 



204 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

picture studios these days are fitted out with space 
for several stages; a great tank for water scenes, 
carpenter shops, scene-painting studios, furniture 
and other stage properties to furnish scenes, cos- 
tumes, stage fittings, and a great corps of photog- 
raphers, mechanics, electricians, etc., besides the 
company of well-paid actors who take part in the 
shows. 

If a play is to be reproduced in the studio, the 
architect draws the plans for the scenery, which are 
sent to the stage carpenters, who make the frame- 
work and stretch the canvas. The blank scenery is 
then sent to the racks, where the scene painters get 
to work on it. 

In the meantime the property man at the studio, 
just like the property man at a theatre, has received 
a list of the things he will need to furnish the scene 
and give the actors the paraphernalia necessary for 
the carrying out of the play. He ransacks his 
storeroom and brings out tables, chairs, pictures, 
etc. The studio costumer also checks off her list 
and sees that she has in her great wardrobe costumes 
to dress the characters for their parts. 

Meantime the stock company of actors is called 
together, the scenario, or plan of the play, is read, and 
rehearsals begin. All this part of it and the rehearsing 
are very much like the work preliminary to the 
staging of a regular play, except that the scenes 
are arranged, not according to the size of the stage, 



ADVENTURES WITH MOTION PICTURES 205 

but according to the focus of the camera. Each 
scene is timed to the second so that the pantomime 
will tell the story but not tire the spectators with 
useless repetition. In rehearsing, the actors some- 
times speak their lines — that is, the w r ords the 
character would say — just as if they were to be 
heard, because it often helps them to give the proper 
effect. 

Finally, when the stage director has one scene of a 
play down fine, after perhaps days or weeks of rehears- 
ing, the photographer is called. He consults with the 
stage manager, measures off the distance for his 
focus, so that he will get all that is necessary into 
the picture, and nothing that is not wanted; and after 
seeing that every detail is attended to, the great 
battery of arc lights overhead is turned on, and the 
stage manager says, "GO!" 

The photographer begins to turn his crank, keeping 
one eye on the stage and the other on his stop watch, 
and the stage director counts off the seconds, mean- 
while shouting instruction to the actors on the stage. 
To an outsider the noises sound like a riot or a street 
fair rather than a theatrical performance timed to 
the fraction of a second in which the movement of 
an eye counts in the final effect. While the camera 
clicks off sixteen instantaneous snapshots to the 
second the stage director calls out the seconds, "One, 
two, three. One, two, three. Look out there, don't 
get out of focus! Keep toward the centre of the 



200 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

stage. Now, Jim, run in and grab the book agent — 
hurry, look angry! One, two, three. That's fine! 
Hey, there! shake your fist." And so it goes, until 
the director rings a bell or shouts, "That's all!" and 
the scene is ended. Just as the last pictures are 
being run off, a stage hand rushes into the scene and 
holds up a large placard with a big number on it. 
This number is the number of the scene in the play, 
and is watched by the men and women in the assem- 
bling room when they gather the various scenes of a 
picture play together and join them up in the proper 
order for one continuous roll. Of course in the joining 
the number is cut out of the picture for projection. 

It very often happens that a stage director in his 
effort to get a graphic story reproduced on the film 
takes a great many more pictures than can be 
crowded within the limits set for the play. Then 
with the scenario in front of him, and a good magnify- 
ing glass to bring out the detail of the pictures, he 
takes his scissors, just as the editor takes his blue 
pencil, and begins cutting from the story the un- 
necessary pictures, just as the newspaper or magazine 
editor cuts useless paragraphs from the story or 
article. He must not cut out any picture that helps 
to tell the story, and yet he must sometimes cut out 
as much as 400 feet of film. He "kills" an unneces- 
sary picture here, and an unnecessary picture there, 
and adds up their length until the story has been 
reduced to the proper size. 



ADVENTURES WITH MOTION PICTURES 207 

Although spectacles such as the one in the pic- 
ture representing a battle on a bridge, and others 
even larger, are staged in the various big motion - 
picture studios, the most exciting work in the filming 
of motion-picture plays is out of doors where the 
natural surroundings make the stage. A great many 
of the shows seen to-day are taken this way, with 
real trees, real water, real mountains, or real streets 
affording the settings. Hence with studios in which 
battle scenes, riot scenes, water scenes, and practically 
any indoor scene can be reproduced; and also the 
great outdoors at the disposal of the cinematog- 
rapher, there is practically no limit to the subjects 
that can be turned into dramatic films for the educa- 
tion and amusement of the public. 

A few instances of the plays made out of doors will 
serve to show the limits to which the producers are 
willing to go to get new shows. The Edison com- 
pany, with its big studio in New York and its manu- 
facturing plant at West Orange, N. J., in the heart 
of the country where the Revolutionary War was 
fought, is reproducing a whole series of films of 
American history. These, so far as possible, are 
made on the exact spots where the dramatic events 
occurred. The first of the series entitled, "The 
Minute Men," was taken near Boston, where those 
historic defenders of liberty fought for their country. 
In this film is the famous scene representing the 
Battle of Concord, which was taken on practically 



208 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

the identical ground where the battle was fought. 
The producers spent a great deal of time in planning 
this series of pictures and so far as possible had every 
historical fact correct, so that the value of the series 
from the educational point of view is apparent. The 
other titles in the series will show how the scenes of 
the Revolutionary War were brought home to the 
American people. They included "The Capture 
of Fort Ticonderoga," "The Battle of Bunker Hill," 
"The Declaration of Independence," "The Death of 
Nathan Hale," '''How Washington Crossed the Dela- 
ware," "Church and Country; an Episode of the 
Winter at Valley Forge," and so on. The film 
dealing with Washington's trip across the Delaware 
in the ice was made under conditions as nearly like 
those of the actual events as possible to get them. 
The pictures were taken during the coldest part of 
last winter (1912), and the photograph opposite page 
193 was taken while the big scene was being acted 
out. This was taken in an arm of Pelham Bay, near 
Xew York, and the "scene shifters" had to work 
for hours in the bitter cold breaking up the ice and 
shifting around the great cakes in order to get the 
desired effect. Their success is attested by the 
picture reproduced here. 

The Selig Company, with studios in Chicago and 
Los Angeles, and big stock companies of actors in 
both places also take some wonderful outdoor films. 
One of these was a play representing life in the 



ADVENTURES WITH MOTION PICTURES 209 

African jungle, for which a special trainload of actors, 
and a whole menagerie of elephants, camels, lions, 
rhinos, leopards, pumas, zebras, and other animals, 
were shipped to Florida, where scenes much like those 
in Africa were found. This same company also sent 
a stock company and a corps of photographers to 
the Far North, where a film play was made amid the 
Arctic ice. 

The Chicago studio of this concern is one of 
the wonders of cinematography, for not only 
has it a great building in which indoor plays are 
filmed, but a great land reserve for outdoor produc- 
tions. In one place are artificial hills built in the 
natural forest, and upon them artificial feudal 
castles. In another are log cabins for frontier scenes, 
and in yet another a barren stretch for other kinds 
of scenes. The Los Angeles company is close to 
the mountains, the ocean, and the Great American 
Desert, so that it can furnish material for an endless 
amount of exciting Wild West shows. 

One of the big films made in Europe was "The Fall 
of Troy," produced by the Itala Film Company, 
which reproduced the great wooden horse, the walls 
of Troy, and all other historical details. The great 
French, German, and English companies also have 
made big films. 

In the production of plays built on well-known 
novels the motion-picture industry has found one 
of its most successful fields. Dickens's great novel, 



210 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

"A Tale of Two Cities/ 5 afforded the Vitagraph 
Company of America, one of its best films, while 
James Fennimore Cooper, Alexander Dumas, and 
even Shakespeare, and grand opera have been 
transferred to the cinematograph. From the great 
Biblical stories also have been taken films that have 
been shown by missionaries, and others interested in 
religious work, all over the world. The "Passion 
Play" was one of the first long films ever shown and 
it made a tremendous success. 

Big spectacles are always popular and to fulfill 
the demand two locomotives have been run together 
at high speed, the motion-picture concern buying 
the machines outright for the purpose and leasing 
the railroad for a day; an automobile has been driven 
over the Palisades of the Hudson River, ships have 
been towed out into the ocean and blown up and 
whole towns of flimsy stage construction have been 
built only to be burned, while the motion-picture 
photographer recorded the whole thing on a film. 
One concern even got permission from the Los Angeles 
Fire department during a big fire, and dressing an 
actor as a fireman cinematographed him as he 
heroically rushed up a ladder amidst the flames and 
rescued a screaming woman from an upper window. 
The woman was an actress who had risked her life 
to go into the burning building and be rescued. 

Of course the great motion-picture industry has 
not been without its fatal accidents. Several times 



ADVENTURES WITH MOTION PICTURES 211 

actors playing the parts of men in difficulty in the 
water have actually been seized with cramps and 
have drowned before the eyes of the spectators. 
One time a picture was being taken of a band of 
train wreckers who were supposed to tie the switch- 
man to the track. The train was supposed to stop 
just short of the man, but it actually ran over 
and killed him. The pictures were used at the 
inquest. During the filming of war pictures there 
have been explosions of gunpowder that were not 
intended, and in the taking of pictures of wild animals 
in their native haunts and in menageries, several 
photographers have been badly injured. 

There is another big and important department 
in the filming of motion picture plays in trick photog- 
raphy. Every one who reads this has seen at the 
picture-theatre films of things that he knows per- 
fectly well never could have happened — men walk- 
ing on the ceiling, fairies the size of a match acting 
on a table beside a man, a saw going through a 
board, a piece of furniture assembling itself, a man 
run over by an automobile, his legs cut off, and then 
stuck on again all within a few minutes, marvellous 
railroad wrecks, and a thousand other things which 
could not happen or which the motion-picture photog- 
rapher probably never could catch in his lens. All of 
these things are done through trick photography. 

Double exposure, double printing, and the stop 
motion are the most common methods of obtaining 



212 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

these marvellous results Opposite page 200 is a 
picture obtained during the reproduction by the 
Edison Company of Alexander Dumas's novel, "The 
Corsican Brothers." This film was obtained com- 
pletely by the double exposure. In the story, the 
two brothers are twins so much alike that they 
cannot be told apart. They act exactly alike, 
and one even feels what, the other feels. In making 
the film the producers decided that it would be 
impossible to get two actors that looked enough 
alike to take the parts of the two brothers, so the 
same man acted both parts. In the picture referred 
to the brothers sitting at table with their mother 
are one and the same actor. 

The picture was made by blocking off the whole 
left half side of the film with black paper and running 
it through the camera while the actor played the 
part of the brother on the right side of the table. 
He was timed to the fraction of a second, and when 
the exposed half of the film was blocked off with 
paper and the unexposed half run through, he acted 
out his part on the left side of the table, to this time 
schedule. So exact was his work that when the 
brother on one side of the table spilled a drop of 
hot coffee on his hand and started in pain, the 
brother on the other side, feeling the same pain 
as his counterpart, jumped at exactly the same 
second. 

Another popular trick with the double exposure 



ADVENTURES WITH MOTION PICTURES 213 

is a scene showing mermaids or divers swimming or 
walking at the bottom of the sea. First a large 
brilliantly lighted glass tank is set up in the studio, 
stocked with fish and sea life, and photographed. 
In this kind of a film the images of the real water 
are a little under exposed. Next a space the size 
of the tank is measured off on the floor with a gray 
scene laid flat. On the scene are painted faint lines 
to indicate water, and faint outlines of fish, seaweed, 
etc. Then the actress dressed for the part of a 
mermaid lies flat on the setting and goes through the 
graceful motions of swimming while the film upon 
which the real water pictures were taken, is run 
through the camera, which is placed above her with 
the lens pointing directly downward. 

Another example of double exposure is seen in most 
films where Liliputians or small fairies enter into the 
picture. The parts of both full-grown human beings 
and diminutive fairies are played alike by adult 
actors, but the difference in their size is obtained 
by taking each on the same film at different times. 
For instance, suppose a tiny fairy is supposed to 
appear to a grown man in the picture play. First 
the man goes through his act with the camera 
photographing him from a distance of about fifteen 
feet. Next the fairy goes through her act, bowing, 
etc., to the place where the man stood and is photo- 
graphed on the film from a distance of say one 
hundred and fifty feet. The two impressions when 



214 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

printed give a lifelike effect of a full-grown man and 
a tiny sprite. 

There are numberless films made by the stop- 
motion system, which simply means that the stage 
hands rush in and arrange things while the shutter 
is closed. All pictures in which you see a man or a 
woman falling off a roof or out of a window and sub- 
sequently getting up and running away are made 
by this system. The Edison film showing an auto- 
mobile going over the Palisades and the driver being 
hurled to the rocks below was done with the stop 
motion. It is very simple. The cinematographer 
photographed the approach of the automobile and 
the human driver in the seat approaching the cliff 
at terrific speed. He stopped his camera, the auto- 
mobile came to a stop, the automobilist got out and a 
dummy was placed in his seat. Then by starting the 
automobile a little back of where it was slowed down 
and stopped, and photographing, it the public could 
not tell that it had been stopped, and that the man 
in the seat who was hurled to the rocks below with 
the machine was a dummy. 

A development of this is the picture-a-turn 
motion, which simply means that with each turn of 
the crank of the camera one exposure is made. By 
this trick many of the strangest films seen are made 
possible. The magic carpenter shop where saws and 
hammers move without human aid is an example. 
It is simply done by stage hands who rush on to the 



ADVENTURES WITH MOTION PICTURES 215 

stage between each turn of the camera and advance 
the tools to one more stage of progress. The saw is 
at the top of the board, and the hammer is suspended 
in air (by invisible wires), etc. In the next picture, 
the saw is in different position, and the hammer has 
descended to the head of a nail. In this way all the 
magical effects of inanimate objects taking on life 
in the film are accomplished. One of the interesting 
details is the appearance of such objects as boards 
rising from the floor and placing themselves upon 
the bench ready for the saw. To do this the operator, 
keeping his shutter closed, advances his film a couple 
of feet and takes a picture of the board falling to the 
floor from the bench (pulled off by an invisible wire) . 
As the film is moving backward, the picture when 
exhibited in sequence shows the board not falling 
but rising from the floor, and placing itself on the 
bench in a most mysterious manner. 

Moving the film backward will give many strange 
results. For instance, in the plays where a little 
child is snatched from death under the wheels of 
an onrushing train just as the cow-catcher is upon 
her, it is no longer necessary to risk human lives before 
trains. First, the onrushing train is photographed 
with the film moving forward right up to the point 
where the child is to be standing when rescued. Then 
the train is allowed to run on past the point. It is 
then backed up at high speed, and the film run back- 
ward. When the locomotive rushes past ihc spot 



216 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

where the child is to be rescued her heroic rescuer 
simply dashes on to the tracks amid the dust of the 
receding train and places the child between the 
rails. When this section of film, which is taken 
backward, is fitted into the rest of the ribbon, and is 
run through the projector forward, it looks as if the 
rescuer rushed on to the track and grabbed the 
child out of the way as the train passed by. 

Another popular trick by which fairies or ghosts 
are made to appear gradually in motion-picture 
scenes is the one by which the lens is narrowed down 
or opened up gradually. If a ghost is to appear, the 
hole through which the light strikes the lens is 
narrowed down so that only the brightest objects 
are photographed. The hole is gradually enlarged 
so that the light increases and brings out the figures 
plainer and plainer, until the ghost is in full view. 

A great many good films, such as railroad wrecks, 
automobile journeys through the clouds, etc., are 
made with models, propelled by invisible strings over 
skilfully built scenery. The scene of figures walking 
on the ceiling is very simple inasmuch as it is only 
necessary to set the floor of the stage to represent 
a ceiling and take the pictures with the camera up- 
side down. Men and animals can be made to run 
up the sides of buildings, simply by laying the 
scenery on the studio floor, and photographing the 
whole thing from above. 

Of the recent developments in cinematography the 




A ROMANCE OF THE ICE FIELDS 

This film was taken in the dead of winter, and the man is in a danger- 
ous position on a real ice cake 




THE SPANISH CAVALIER 

A whole motion-picture outfit was taken to Bermuda to get this 
photoplay 



ADVENTURES WITH MOTION PICTURES 217 

ones we hear most about are colour pictures and talk- 
ing pictures. So far, these two points w^hich would 
give the last touch of realism to the scenes thrown 
on the screen are in a very imperfect state of develop- 
ment, but it is safe to say that it will not be very 
many years before we will have them duplicating 
what we see and hear in actual life just as faithfully 
as the black and white pictures now duplicate motion. 

Science so far has not given us a method of actually 
taking a motion-picture negative in the natural 
colours, such as now can be taken in still photog- 
raphy, so at first the pictures were coloured by 
hand, and later by stencils. This is a difficult and 
a tedious undertaking, however, and newer methods 
have been introduced. 

Although there are several systems being worked 
out the one best known is the Kinemacolour, which 
achieved its greatest fame by showing the pictures 
of the coronation of King George in England, and 
the Durbar in India in colours. The Kinemacolour 
system is simply one of photographing and projecting 
through screens of red and green. The shutter of 
the camera is made up of four parts, as follows: a 
transparent red screen, an opaque space, a trans- 
parent green screen, and another opaque space. 
Thus, by the law of colours laid down by science, 
when one picture is photographed through a red 
screen, all the different tones but red are arrested 
by the screen, and only the objects having shades 



218 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

of red are photographed. Next, when the green 
screen exposes the next space of three quarters 
of an inch, only the objects having green tints are 
photographed, as all other tints are arrested by the 
green screen. 

The film itself shows no colour other than black 
and white, but when it is projected through a shutter 
that works exactly the same as the camera shutter 
the pictures show the objects in their natural colours. 
That is, the alternating pictures taken through the 
red screen and shown through a screen of the same 
colour show all the tones of red, while the alternating 
pictures taken through the green screen and like- 
wise projected through a green screen show all the 
tones in w 7 hich appear green. Thus, with the aid 
of the persistence of vision and a somewhat faster 
system of photographing and projecting, the tones 
blend and we see on the screen at the same instant 
red-coated soldiers marching past beautiful green 
trees, and so on. In order to make this possible 
it is necessary to give the films a treatment in a 
solution that makes them more sensitive to all 
light than they would be for ordinary cinematography. 

The drawback to the system, as you will have 
noticed if you have seen these pictures, is that red 
and green do not make up all the 'primary colours 
of light. In the direct rays of fight (not reflected 
light as from a painted wall) the primary colours, 
from which all the other tones are obtained, are red, 



ADVENTURES WITH MOTION PICTURES 219 

green, and violet, but it has been found a little too 
difficult a mechanical process to use the three screens 
instead of only two. 

The hardest job of the inventors of talking pictures 
was to work out a mechanical device that would 
make a good phonograph and a motion-picture pro- 
jector keep step, so that, for instance, the actor 
would not be heard singing after the pictures had 
shown him close his mouth and leave the stage. Ever 
since his invention of the Kinetoscope, Edison has 
had this very thing in mind, and has prophesied that 
in the near future grand opera with motion pictures 
and phonographs will be within the means of every 
patron of the motion-picture theatre. Edison's 
idea for obtaining this is to make the phonographic 
and the cinematographic records at the same time 
in order to insure perfect accuracy of sound and 
appearance, and his experiments are meeting with 
success. 

A fairly successful device for giving the phono- 
graph and the projector synchronism, or, in other 
words, keeping them in step, has been worked out 
by the Gaumont firm of Paris. The phonograph 
and the projector are run by two motors of exactly 
the same size and power, from the same wires. The 
armatures of the motors are divided into an equal 
number of sections, and each section of one is con- 
nected with the corresponding section in the armature 
of the other, so that one cannot rotate for the fraction 



220 THE BOY'S BOOK OP NEW INVENTIONS 

of a second unless the other rotates with it. A 
little switch working on another motor, which works 
on a set of gears, will speed up or slacken down the 
talking machine so that if the armatures get "out 
of step" one can be speeded up or slowed down so 
that the figures in the pictures will appear to be talk- 
ing, laughing, or singing, just as they do in real life. 

Another of the recent deve opments in cinematog- 
raphy is the di-optic system which aims to show 
every stage of the motion of figures, instead of 
the stage of motion every sixteenth of a second, 
as is in the case with the usual apparatus. The 
di-optic camera is simply two machines set side by 
side in one. It takes two loads of film, has two film 
gates, and two lenses, but works by turning one crank. 
The single shutter revolves in front of the twin 
lens, so that when one side is exposing a length of 
film the other is closed and the film is advancing. 
The two rolls of negative exposed in this way record 
the complete motions of the figures before the 
camera. The projector also is a di-optic machine 
working in the same manner as the double-eyed 
camera, so that when the pictures are thrown on the 
screen they are seen practically constantly, instead 
of every sixteenth of a second, for while one is 
hidden by the shutter, another is thrown on the 
screen. Also inventors are working on a scheme 
for taking motion pictures on glass plates instead 
of on films. 



ADVENTURES WITH MOTION PICTURES 221 

As was mentioned previously the use of the motion- 
picture machine has been very valuable to science, 
and by adapting the cinematograph to a powerful 
microscope a great many motion pictures of the life 
of bacteria have been obtained. Also motion pic- 
tures are sometimes made of surgical operations. 
Carrying this work even farther still, animated 
photography and X-ray photography have been 
joined so that science now can make motion pictures 
of the processes that go on inside small animals. 

Owing to difficulties not yet overcome moving 
X-ray pictures cannot be taken of the human body 
at this time. Rontgen rays cannot be refracted, or 
collected in a lens. Hence the film for an X-ray 
picture must be equal in size to the picture desired. 
It is impossible to increase the size of cinematograph 
films with much success because of the danger of break- 
ing or tearing them when under the strain of the rapid 
course they must pursue through camera and projector. 
These facts made it necessary for the scientists experi- 
menting with X-ray motion pictures to photograph 
only animals, but they were greatly encouraged because 
they obtained some excellent views of the digestive 
processes of mice, guinea-pigs, fowls, and other 
small animals. The bones of the human hand also 
were photographed while the hand was opened and 
closed. 

M. J. Garvallo, who carried on a great many inter- 
esting experiments in France with this type of motion 



222 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

pictures, used a somewhat larger and more sensitive 
film than the standard, combined with an apparatus 
too complex for attention here. This phase of 
cinematography, however, is still in its infancy and 
we can look for great improvements at an early 
date. 

Another Frenchman, Prof. Lucien Bull, who was 
one of Doctor Marey's assistants in the early stages 
of cinematography, has made pictures of the move- 
ment of the wings of various insects such as flies, 
bees, wasps, etc. To do this he has had to make the 
fastest known cinematograph. It was an especially 
constructed apparatus entirely unlike the ones 
described here, but through the agency of an electrical 
spark which illuminated the vicinity in which the 
insect flew, 2,000 pictures per second were taken, 
instead of the usual sixteen. 

The very antithesis of the scientific are the uses 
of the motion-picture film as an illustrated magazine 
or newspaper. There are only a few successful 
"animated newspapers" in the world, but the idea 
will probably spread. The staff of such a publica- 
tion is made up of photographers, who are scattered 
about in every nation on the globe. There are 
regular offices in all the big cities which are ready at 
a moment's notice to send photographers to any part 
of their territory. These photographers get films 
of all the important news occurrences of the day, 
parades, street demonstrations, wTecks, fires and 



ADVENTURES WITH MOTION PICTURES 223 

whatever else fills the newspapers you read every 
day. The films are hurried to the main office where 
they are developed, cut down to short "items/' 
or allowed to run as long. " stories'' just like in a 
regular newspaper, pasted together with suitable 
headlines, printed in one continuous roll of about 
1,000 feet and rushed out to the subscribers, who 
are usually theatres with audiences eager for the 
"paper." ' 

Such are a few of the many motion-picture activi- 
ties which have sprung up in the last few years, 
and made it possible for us to see whatever is in- 
teresting in any part of the world, on the cinemat- 
ograph screen. Beside the professional cinematog- 
raphers, there are of course any number of smart 
boys and young men who are having fine times 
with the amateur projecting outfits sold by the big 
makers of apparatus. These machines run from 
mere toys made up for a little roll of film, already 
prepared, to projectors with which very creditable 
parlour shows can be given. 



CHAPTER VII 

STEEL BOILED LIKE WATER AND CUT 
LIKE PAPER 

OUR BOY FRIEND SEES HOW SCIENCE HAS TURNED 
THE GREATEST KNOWN HEATS TO THE EVERYDAY 
USE OF MANKIND 

HOW hot is it in that furnace ?" asked the 
scientist's young friend as he poked about 
the laboratory one day. 

"That is not very hot now, but we could increase 
the temperature to about 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit 
if we tried hard enough/' answered the man who, 
outside of his work, enjoyed best of all the visits of 
the boy. "But the heat of the laboratory furnace 
most of the time is nothing compared to the heat 
that we can put to practical use through a couple 
of new inventions I have been trying here." 

"What are they for?" asked the boy, immediately 
all interest, for he was a member of the metal- 
working class in his school, and was constantly on 
the lookout for better ways of working in iron, steel, 
copper, and brass. 

"Well, they both are used in welding metals and 

224 




THERMIT IN ERUPTION 

With a blinding, dazzling glare and a gentle hissing tin' thermit in a 
white-hot molten mass fills the mould and runs down the sides like vol- 
canic lava 




DR. HAXS GOLDSCHMIDT 

The inventor of Thermit 



STEEL BOILED LIKE WATER 225 

in one — the thermit process — the hardest steel 
can be reduced to a molten mass of white hot metal 
boiling like a tea kettle on a stove, in about a half 
a minute. You see that requires a great deal of 
heat/' continued the chemist, "and in fact the 
temperature is 5,400 degrees, Fahrenheit. 

"The other process that I have been trying is 
known as autogenous welding, and in this even a 
greater temperature is generated than by the thermit 
process. In the tiny flame no bigger than the point 
of this pencil that comes from the autogenous welding 
torch the temperature is about 6,000 degrees Fahren- 
heit." 

"My!" said the boy, "how could any one ever 
measure such a heat as that?" 

"Science teaches us how to do that just as science 
taught us how to produce these great heats. Why, 
you know, in the electrical furnaces at Niagara Falls 
they produce a heat that they think reaches the 
10,000 degrees of the sun. Outside of that, however, 
the thermit process and the autogenous welding 
process attain the greatest known heats." 

"Those must be fine," said the boy, "because 
before our schools began to teach metal working, 
I used to play blacksmith and heat pieces of iron 
in the fire, but I could never do anything with it, 
and now that we are learning welding in the black- 
smith shop at school I see what a hard job it is. I 
wish we could use these processes at school." 



226 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

"Well, you will be able to use them some day/' 
said the scientist, "but it took science a long time 
to find out how to produce and use very high tem- 
peratures." 

"In the stone age, thousands and thousands of 
years ago, when men lived in caves and ate raw the 
animals that they caught with their hands, fire was 
first discovered by an accident. There are many 
legends of how the hairy savages that populated the 
earth fell down and worshipped the aboriginal 
scientist who taught them how to warm their caves. 

"Soon, however, fire became a necessity of life 
to mankind, for it was discovered that meat tasted 
better when exposed to a flame — that, is, when it 
was cooked — than when it was raw. That was a 
big step toward civilization, but it was a bigger one 
when some wild mountain tribe found that they could 
make much more deadly weapons than the rude ones 
they chipped from flint, by melting down a certain 
kind of rock and fashioning it into spear heads, 
arrow heads, and hatchets. From that time on 
the development of the art of metal working took 
only a few thousand years, until to-day man's great 
knowledge of metalurgy has enabled him to make 
such tremendous fighting machines that war is be- 
coming entirely too destructive, and too expensive 
a thing to rush into lightly. Thus, heat and metal 
working are helping to force the world forward to 
another step in civilization — universal peace. 



STEEL BOILED LIKE WATER 227 

"After learning how to make these hardest of 
metals, man has now solved the problem of making 
them boil like water with the thermit process and of 
cutting them like paper with the oxy-acetylene gas 
torch, all in less than a minute. 

"You see this bag of coarse black powder that 
looks like iron filings? Well, it is the thermit. Put 
it into a crucible, set off a pinch of ignition powder 
on the top, and the whole thing will ignite in half 
a minute, throwing off a blinding white light and 
thousands of sparks like beautiful fire works. That 
is the thermit reaction. 

'You know more about the oxyacetylene gas torch, 
for in your metal working at school you used the gas 
blowpipe to make a very hot flame. The oxy- 
acetylene gas torch is just a high development of 
this, for instead of ordinary gas, acetylene is used 
and instead of air we use pure oxygen." 

The caller sat down and asked his friend to tell 
something more about these two marvelous in- 
ventions. The story was several days in the telling, 
for there were visits to foundries and experiments 
in the laboratory, besides many long talks. 

"First we will see about thermit," said the man, 
and began to talk as he worked over a crucible. 

THERMIT HEAT PROCESS 

As a result of his discovery that by starting a 
terrific battle for oxygen between two metals he 



228 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

could reduce one of them to almost absolute purity, 
Dr. Hans Goldschmidt has converted to the use of 
man a process of welding so simple and yet so forceful 
that it is making world-wide changes in the working 
of metals. This battle itself is the most interesting 
feature of the Goldschmidt process because of the 
terrific heat it generates. 

Imagine sticking your finger into boiling water. 
By so doing you would be exposing your flesh to a 
temperature of 212 degrees Fahrenheit. Imagine 
sticking your finger into a pot of molten lead if even 
for the fraction of a second. You know very well 
what the effect would be. The temperature is 618 
degrees Fahrenheit. Still again, think of a redhot 
iron. This is about 1,652 degrees Fahrenheit. Steel 
boils at 3,500 degrees. 

They are all hot enough, but compare them with 
the temperature of 5,400 degrees Fahrenheit or about 
3,000 degrees Centigrade, which is attained by the 
thermit reaction. The range of temperature in 
which we can five extends from a little over 100 
degrees to 70 or 80 degrees below zero, and yet man 
can so direct the heat of the thermit reaction that 
it will work for him. 

The commonest use of the process is in welding 
steel or iron, such as broken parts of machinery and 
welding steel rails, and steel or iron pipes. Besides 
this, the thermit process will reduce many metals 
to a high degree of purity. After spending a few 



STEEL BOILED LIKE WATER 229 

minutes in seeing how the inventor of this process 
came to discover it, we will take a little trip in our 
mind's eye to some of the places where the thermit 
process is in use, and see what happens. 

As you know, metals rarely come from the mines 
in a state of purity. They usually are very much 
mixed up with rock, slag, and other minerals, so that 
it takes a complicated process called smelting to 
separate them. Even then they are not pure, and 
more complicated processes have to be gone through 
with. Oxides, or metals that have been oxidized, 
are common because oxidization merely means that 
the metal has been burned so that each atom of 
metal has taken up an atom of oxygen to make what 
is called a molecule of oxide. Iron ore is usually 
found in the form of iron oxide, because when this 
great earth was nothing but a swirling ball of burning 
gases, probably as hot as the sun, gradually cooling 
and forming a great cauldron of molten matter, 
boiling and bubbling more fiercely than the hottest 
cauldron of molten metal in any steel mill, much of 
the matter that later became iron ore was burned or 
oxidized. Other chemical actions too technical for 
our attention just now were responsible for other 
forms of ore, such as sulphides, etc. When the 
earth cooled sufficiently to become solid, these things 
were completed, and they only had to remain hidden 
away under the surface for ages and ages until 
a little man who could live but a hundred years at 



230 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

the utmost solved the deepest secrets of the earth's 
formation. 

Thus, to obtain pure metals the oxygen must be 
removed from the oxide. In other words, it must 
be reduced. Plainly such reduction was a problem 
of smelting, but Doctor Goldschmidt in his efforts 
to obtain purity was working along lines of smelting, 
in his little German laboratory, very different from 
the ones in general use. 

His first object was to reduce iron oxides. First, 
he knew that aluminum has a great affinity for 
oxygen, or, in other words, when the two are heated 
will absorb oxygen like a sponge will absorb water, 
only more forcibly and more violently than any such 
comparison even faintly suggests. In yet other 
words, aluminum wants oxygen more than any other 
metal does. Of course no chemical changes would 
occur if a piece of iron oxide and a piece of aluminum 
were set side by side, any more than we would have 
gunpowder if we set a chunk of saltpetre, a chunk 
of sulphur, and a chunk of charcoal all in a row. 
The iron oxide and the aluminum would have to be 
mixed by cutting or filing them into small pieces and 
making a coarse powder. Still nothing would happen 
without heat to start it. 

If you collected some flakes of iron oxide in the 
palm of your hand they wouldn't look to you like very 
promising material for a bonfire, and you wouldn't be 
in any danger of an explosion, but you would have 



STEEL BOILED LIKE WATER 231 

something in your hand that would burn, neverthe- 
less. If you sprinkled your iron filings over a gas 
flame, Welsbach burner, or over a common lamp 
chimney the heat would cause them to splutter and 
fly out with all the brilliancy you know so well 
when the blacksmith gives the redhot horseshoe the 
first pound. 

Of course Doctor Goldschmidt knew all this, just 
as he knew that the way the aluminum would take 
the oxygen away from the iron oxide was through 
heating the coarse powder of filings to a very high 
temperature. But this was attended with serious 
troubles and many times the German scientist came 
near losing his life in explosions in his laboratory. 

At first he failed to get the mixture hot enough and 
nothing happened. Bit by bit he increased the heat 
under the crucible containing the filings until it 
reached about 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. At this 
point the metals were hot enough to fuse or run 
together and the whole thing reacted with such 
violence that it amounted to an explosion. What 
really happened was that the mass reached the tem- 
perature where the aluminum could take the oxygen 
from the iron oxide, and it did so with such force 
that an explosion resulted. 

Doctor Goldschmidt then saw his problem. It 
was that of devising some way of heating the mix- 
ture to a temperature sufficient to gain the reaction, 
but without an explosion. 



232 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

After trying everything that he could think of, he 
conceived the plan of leaving the crucible in the 
open air and starting the heat at just one point 
first, instead of heating the whole thing in a furnace. 
He did this with a pinch of ignition powder placed 
on the top of his pile of iron oxide and aluminum. 
The ignition powder was simply lighted with a 
match. 

What happened? 

Thermit w^as discovered. 

The heat, or reaction started at one point, gradu- 
ally spread through the whole mass, and reduced 
it to white-hot molten material. 

In other words the application of intense heat at 
one point in the mixture was sufficient to fuse the 
metals and start the battle between the iron oxide 
on one side and the aluminum on the other, in the 
immediate vicinity of the point where the heat was 
applied. As the few particles set off by the ignition 
powder struggled for the oxygen they themselves 
generated heat — ■ terriffic heat — which gave a high 
enough temperature to start the particles that were 
their next-door neighbours to struggling for the 
oxygen. These in turn generated heat to set off their 
own neighbours, and so it went. 

In far less time than it takes to read this, Doctor 
Goldschmidt saw the whole crucible of dead mineral 
particles take on life and become white-hot liquid metal. 
Scientifically speaking, the reaction had spread through 



STEEL BOILED LIKE WATER 233 

the whole mass in less than a minute, but what Doctor 
Goldschmidt saw was a blinding white light, more in- 
tense than any arc lamp, throwing off a little cloud of 
white smoke or vapour. Apparently the whole thing 
was burning up. He only heard a little hissing as 
the metals battled for the precious oxygen. 

There was no explosion, there was no violent 
scattering of molten particles, and there were no 
noxious life-destroying gases such as come from the 
explosion of gunpowder, dynamite, or even the 
burning of coal. And yet the seething, molten 
metals in the crucible reached a temperature second 
or third to the highest ever registered by man. Five 
thousand four hundred degrees — ■ think of it ! — more 
than half as hot as science tells us is the sun which 
makes this world of ours habitable. 

But what was the result of this temperature which 
staggers the imagination? 

Just this. Doctor Goldschmidt knew that the 
aluminum had won the prize of battle and had paid 
the price of victory. 

The conquered iron was at the bottom of the 
crucible, a molten mass of pure metal, while the 
victorious aluminum, seething on the top, was noth- 
ing but slag (aluminum oxide). 

Perhaps there may be a little lesson in this drama 
of the metals, because while the iron was vanquished 
it emerged from the stress of conflict purified and 
fitted for its high service to mankind, while the 



234 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

more aggressive aluminum came to the top an almost 
useless product, ruined by the prize for which it had 
fought. 

Another interesting point about this reaction is 
that the heat produced by a certain quantity of the 
mixture is no greater in total volume than the heat 
that would be produced by the burning of an equal 
amount of anthracite coal. The difference is that 
the thermit process concentrates all the heat in a 
few seconds whereas the coal gives off its heat bit 
by bit for a long period of time. 

The mixture of filings used in this process is called 
thermit. A technical definition of the product is as 
follows: "Thermit is a mixture of finely divided 
aluminum and iron oxide. When ignited in one 
spot, the combustion so started continues throughout 
the entire mass without supply of heat or power from 
outside and produces superheated liquid steel and 
superheated liquid slag (aluminum oxide)." 

Thus the makers of thermit call the pure metal 
that results from the combustion, thermit steel. 

For the boy who has studied chemistry the simple 
equation by which the scientist described the process 
to his young friend will mean as much as his long 
explanation. The equation is: 

Fe 2 3 + 2A1 = A1 2 3 + 2Fe. 

The scientist simply went on to say that Fe 2 , iron, 
and 3 , oxygen, in the equation means iron oxide, 



STEEL BOILED LIKE WATER 235 

while 2 Al means aluminum. Thus we have iron oxide 
plus aluminum, heated to 5,400 degrees Fahrenheit, 
equals aluminum oxide, Al 2 3 , plus pure iron, 2 Fe. 
These signs are simply the abbreviations scientists 
use for expressing processes in the terms of mathe- 
matical equations. 

With this general outline of the principle of 
the thermit process in mind its actual application 
will seem a simple matter. Suppose that a great 
steel ship ploughing her way through a storm breaks 
her sternframe. This is the steel framework upon 
which the rudder post is mounted, and naturally 
a fracture puts the rudder out of commission. 
Repairs must be made before the ship can make an- 
other trip. Quick repairs are desired by the owners. 
Perhaps the ship is a passenger steamer due to leave 
port in a few days with passengers and mail, so to 
put the liner in drydock, wait for the steel mills to 
cast a new sternframe, wait for it to come by freight, 
and then wait for the steelworkers to fit the piece 
in the place of the broken one is a matter of weeks, 
perhaps more. 

With the thermit process at hand this is not neces- 
sary. The company that manufactures and sells 
thermit has big plants in several cities in various 
parts of the world, but if there is steel repairing to 
be done elsewhere the company will send its materials 
and expert workmen on a minute's notice. So if 
the crippled ship limps into the port where there 



236 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

is a thermit plant the repairs can begin at once, but 
there need be only a little delay otherwise, because 
the captain of the ship can notify his owners of 
the damage by wireless while still out at sea, and long 
before he reaches the port he is making for they 
can have a complete thermit outfit on the way. 

One of the biggest advantages of the thermit 
process of repairing machinery or structural steel 
is that the welding in a great many cases can be 
made without taking the complicated parts to 
pieces. Consequently after the ship is in drydock 
the workmen build a wooden scaffolding about the 
broken sternframe, so that they can work the better. 

The next step is the preparation of the broken 
parts for welding. Most boys know how the doctor 
has to put splints on a broken arm so that it will 
knit properly. It is something like that with a 
thermit weld. 

The broken parts are supported in exact alignment 
by heavy blocks of concrete, and the fractured ends 
sliced off clean by the oxygen-gas torch. This 
leaves a space of from one inch to two and a half 
inches between the fractured ends, just according 
to the size of the piece to be welded. After the 
parts are all thoroughly cleaned the workmen are 
ready to take the next step. 

This is the preparation of the mould for the weld. 
First, a pattern of the weld, as it will appear when 
completed, is put on the fracture with beeswax. The 



STEEL BOILED LIKE WATER 237 

space between the broken ends is filled in and a thick 
"collar" of wax is packed around the parts, so that 
when this is done the pattern looks like a swelling 
on the frame. The mould is then built around this 
wax pattern. 

The inventor of the thermit process had to make 
a number of experiments before he found a material 
refractory enough to stand the terrific heat to which 
the mould had to be exposed Finally he decided 
upon an equal mixture of fire brick, fire clay, and fire 
sand. 

With this material, then, the workmen go about 
making the mould. It is solid, with the exception 
of three apertures or tunnels, which are left by 
inserting in the moulding clay, wooden models of 
the size and shape desired. These are a gate, or 
place into which the molten welding material is to be 
poured, a "riser" or larger hole into which the 
surplus material can run for the overflow, and a 
heating aperture. The gate runs from the top of 
the mould down to the lowest point of the wax 
pattern, while the "riser" extends from the top of 
the wax pattern to the top of the mould. Thus we 
really have a small inlet and large outlet, although 
it is always arranged so that the surplus metal 
remains in the riser, and as little as possible runs 
over. The heating aperture is a small hole in the 
side of the mould extending to the bottom of the 
wax pattern. 



238 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

With the mould complete the wooden models of 
the gate, riser, and heating aperture are pulled out 
and the first step in the process of welding is taken. 
The long pipe of a specially constructed gasoline 
compressed-air torch is inserted in the heating 
aperture and the process called preheating started. 
The gasoline torch, of course, quickly melts the 
beeswax, and leaves the space occupied by the 
pattern clear for the molten metal that is to be 
introduced to make the weld. The blast from the 
torch is continued through this heating aperture 
until the parts to be welded have reached a red heat J 
because if this were not done the cold steel would so 
chill the molten thermit steel that the weld could 
not be accomplished. The length of time taken by 
this preheating is governed, of course, by the size 
of the parts to be welded. Sometimes it is many 
hours. 

Everything is now ready for the thermit. There 
has been some elaborate preparation of the thermit 
too. The coarse powder or grains of iron oxide and 
aluminum previously have been prepared according 
to the job to be done. In very large welds, or 
welds where very hard steel is required, certain 
additions, to be explained later, are made to the 
thermit. 

The amount of thermit to be used is an important 
factor, of course, as there must be plenty to fill the 
the mould, and yet not so much that it will overflow 



STEEL BOILED LIKE WATER 239 

the riser. To decide on the amount takes a careful 
calculation because in large operations there are 
certain additions to the thermit which have to be 
considered. In general, however, the engineer must 
remember that he must have just twice as much 
molten thermit steel as he needs to fill the space left 
by the melting of the wax pattern. The surplus 
flows up into the riser, heating aperture, and gate, 
effectually closing all of them. The calculation, 
then, is that it takes four and a half ounces of steel 
to fill a cubic inch. It takes nine ounces of thermit 
to produce four and a half ounces of steel, so the 
engineer directing the weld must figure on eighteen 
ounces of thermit to each cubic inch in the wax 
pattern, including the space between the parts to 
be welded. 

After seeing that the proper amount of thermit 
is measured out the engineer must see that the 
crucible in which the reaction is to take place is 
ready to contain the strenuous battle that is to be 
fought in it. 

As before mentioned there are very few products 
that can withstand the heat of the fire produced by 
thermit. Ordinary fire brick and mortar would melt 
or be burned to powder in a few seconds. Metal would 
go the same way that the metal in the crucible goes. 
Science, however, has established that magnesia tar is 
not affected by the thermit fire, so the crucible in which 
the thermit is reduced is heavily lined with magnesia 



240 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

tar. The crucible itself is shaped like a cone with 
the point downward. At the bottom is a magnesia 
stone, which has a conical-shaped hole for the 
"thimble." This "thimble" also is made of magnesia 
stone, and has a hole through it for the molten 
thermit steel to run through after the reaction has 
taken place. Before filling the crucible with the 
thermit, however, the pouring hole is very carefully 
plugged up by a special process, with a little steel 
pin protected by fire sand and fire clay. This pin 
extends below the lowest point of the crucible a 
couple of inches, and by knocking it upward the 
molten metal is allowed to flow out. The upper 
end of this little plug that otherwise would be melted 
instantaneously by contact with the burning thermit, 
as indicated above, has to be protected by a layer of 
fire sand. The hole through which the metal flows 
is never more than half an inch in diameter. 

With the crucible, mould, and thermit prepared, 
the next thing is to put the thermit in the crucible 
and put the crucible in place. There are many ways 
of placing the crucible. In some cases, it is hung by 
a chain and in others it is supported by a tripod or 
wooden scaffolding. The latter is the better because, 
though the wood always catches fire from the heat, 
it can be kept standing by throwing on water, 
whereas steel or iron would be eaten in two in an 
instant by the touch of a few sparks of flying thermit. 
The point is to support the crucible so that the pour- 




THERMIT WELD ON STERNFRAME OF A STEAMSHIP 

Notice metal left above weld, where it flowed up into the riser 




A LARGE SHAFT WELDED BY THE THERMIT PROCESS 

Protruding metal is thai which flowed up into gate and riser. It is 
cut away 1>\ the gas torch to leave a neat weld 




rtesv of the American Machinist 



CUTTING UP THE OLD BATTLESHIP MAINE WITH AN 
OXY-ACETYLENE GAS TORCH 

Picture shows end of boat crane over exploded magazine, which was 
cut off in fifteen minutes 




rican Machinist 



Courtesy of the - 

CUTTING AWAY THE DECKS 

Oxygen and acetylene generators can be seen on top of after-turret 



STEEL BOILED LIKE WATER 241 

ing hole is directly over the entering gate, or pouring 
gate of the mould. 

Things move with a rush now, for all these arrange- 
ments are made ahead of time, and as soon as the 
workmen are sure that the parts in the mould are 
redhot the heating aperture is carefully plugged 
with fire sand and the thermit is ignited. From a 
mere pinch to half a teaspoonful of the ignition 
powder is put into a little hollow in the thermit so 
that the heat may be communicated at once to as 
much of the thermit as possible. This is then set 
off with a storm match. The workman quickly 
withdraws his hand, slams the lid on to the cru- 
cible and gets out of the way of flying sparks. 

There is a hiss, a puff of white smoke, a blinding 
glare from the hole in the top of the crucible, and 
that is all, beside a few sparks, to indicate that a 
heat second only to that of the sun is being 
generated within. 

One cannot help but marvel at the wonders of sci- 
ence as this inconceivable heat is being produced, the 
process is seemingly so simple, so easily handled, 
and so accessible for all kinds of work where steel 
welding is necessary. 

Half a minute to a minute (according to the 
amount of thermit used) after the match has been 
applied a workman holding at arm's length a long 
tool called a "tapping spade" gives a few upward 
knocks to the little metal pin extending down from 



242 THE BOYS BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

the closed pouring aperture. He jumps back for the 
heat is enough to set his clothes afire, even at a 
considerable distance, and a few flying particles 
of the molten thermit would inflict a serious burn. 

Down through the little hole the thermit, that a 
minute before had been only a coarse dark gray 
powder like metal filings, seemingly the last thing 
on earth that would catch fire, flows into the 
pouring gate of the mould in a steady stream of 
white-hot liquid steel. The white glow from the 
metal is brighter than any electric light. It is so 
intense that although the workmen wear heavy 
dark goggles, they shade their eyes and turn their 
heads away. 

Now you will be wondering, if you know anything 
about steel and its wonderful properties, how it is 
that this can be good steel when it is all mixed up 
with the aluminum oxide or slag. The reason it 
is of best quality is that as soon as the reaction reduces 
the whole mass to a molten liquid the heavier steel, set 
free, as the scientists say, but as we have chosen to 
think of it, robbed of the aluminum, sinks to the bot- 
tom, while the lighter aluminum oxide rises to the top. 
Consequently the steel goes into the mould to make 
the weld while the slag, having risen to the top, will be 
found at the top of the pouring gate, and only around 
the outer edges of the weld. 

When the pour is completed the workmen go away 
and leave it to cool. It is usually left over night, 



STEEL BOILED LIKE WATER 243 

sometimes as long as forty hours, when the weld is 
a very large one. 

Finally the mould is broken down and the weld 
is found complete, with big extensions of the steel 
extending from the weld, in just the shape of the 
pouring gate "riser" and heating aperture. 

The molten thermit steel rushing in at the bottom 
of the mould has risen between the heated broken 
ends, and all around them, in just the shape left by 
the wax pattern. As the scientists say, the thermit 
steel has united the broken sternframe and formed 
a homogeneous mass with it. In other words the 
terrific heat of the thermit rushing on the heated 
ends has resulted in the two parts becoming one with 
the added thermit steel. 

After the mould is broKen down the oxygen-gas 
torch comes into use again to cut away the ends 
of steel sticking up where they had cooled in the 
pouring gate, "riser 55 and heating aperture. After 
this the weld looks like a great swelling upon the 
sternframe, and if the swelling is where it will not 
interfere with the working of the rudder or steamer 
propellers, nothing more need be done. On the 
other hand, if the swelling is in the way, it can be re- 
duced to the size of the frame, and squared off with 
machines built for the purpose. 

Thus the ship is repaired and is ready to be 
taken out of drydock for her next trip, as good 
as new. 



244 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

About the same plan is followed out on all kinds 
of welding except pipes and rails. Locomotives can 
be repaired without taking the complicated ma- 
chinery apart just by working around until the 
crucible can be so hung, and the pouring gate so 
arranged that the metal can be poured into the 
place designed for it. The chief difference lies in 
the size of the weld to be made and the consequent 
amount of thermit to be used. Welds have been 
made where as much as 2,000 poimds of thermit — 
enough to make 1,000 poimds of steel — have 
been run into a mould. In these very big welds a 
certain percentage of steel "pundhings/ 3 or small 
pieces of steel, and a little pure manganese are 
used to give the additional hardness to the weld. 

Without going into details as to the manner in 
which the principle of the thermit process is applied 
on rails or pipes, it will be enough to say that in 
welding rails three different systems are used. The 
first is done by building the mould around the ends 
of the two rails to be welded together and letting 
the thermit steel run in and completely surround 
the rails and the space between them. This gives 
one continuous rail just as far as the welding is 
carried on, and one through which the electric cur- 
rent of an electric road can pass without any trouble 
at all. It is plain, then, why this system is used 
so much on third rails of electric roads. The trouble 
with it is that the swelling on the top and inside i 



STEEL BOILED LIKE WATER 245 

the rails must be machined down to present a smooth 
running surface to the wheels. 

The next system, which is now almost out of date, 
is one in which two moulds are used so that the 
thermit does not come up over the running surface 
of the rails. This relieves the engineers of the 
necessity of machining the welded joints. 

The third system is a mixture of the joining by 
plates and the thermit process. This is called the 
"Clark joint/ 5 after the name of Chief Engineer 
Charles H. Clark of the Cleveland, (Ohio) Electric 
Company, who formulated the plan. The rails are 
joined with plates and bolted, or riveted together 
in the old way, but a thermit weld is made at 
the base of the rail, welding the bases of the two 
rails together and to the plate. 

The method of welding steel pipes is an exact 
reversal of the principle of welding together solid 
pieces of steel or iron. After the pipes are cut off 
clean, the mould, which is made of cast iron, is placed 
around them with specially constructed clamps to 
force the two ends closer together after the thermit 
has been poured in. The thermit is then set off in a 
flat-bottomed crucible like a long-handled ladle, and 
poured into the mould by hand as if from a ladle. As 
the slag rises to the top it goes into the mould first 
and coats the pipes. The thermit steel does not 
touch the pipes, but merely supplies the heat to 
weld them perfectly, so that they are as strong as the 



246 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

piping itself. Just after the pour has been made, 
the clamps are tightened up and the white-hot pipe 
ends forced together. They are thus held until cold, 
when the mould is broken away. The slag coats 
the outside of the pipes and this is chipped away, 
leaving a perfect weld. 

Another interesting use of thermit is in the great 
foundries where cauldrons of metal have to be kept 
at a very high temperature. To help keep the mass 
in a liquid state thermit can be introduced in it 
either by throwing it into the cauldrons in bags, with 
a little ignition powder so fixed that it will be touched 
off by the heat of the boiling metal, or by putting 
it in especially designed cans affixed to the ends of 
long rods. By these rods the thermit can be plunged 
to the bottom of the cauldron before it " burns." 
The reaction of the thermit, with the intense heat 
caused by it, helps to keep the mass at the proper 
temperature. 

Also thermit is used in the same way with a small 
amount of titanium oxide, to purify iron and steel. 
The metal becomes much more liquid, and a commo- 
tion like boiling is started. This is the result of the 
titanium driving out the impure gases and driving- 
other impurities such as metallic oxides and sulphur 
contents to the top. Chemically what happens when 
the titanium is introduced by the thermit process is 
that the titanium combines with the nitrogen in the 
molten iron, giving it a much finer grain, and making 



STEEL BOILED LIKE WATER 247 

it a much lighter colour, more like steel, than 
previously. 

One of the things thermit is not extensively used for 
is the repairing of gray iron castings. The first reason 
is that gray iron is cheaper than steel, and a new 
casting often can be turned out by the mills quickly. 

Another and a more interesting reason is that gray 
iron melts in a much lower temperature than does 
thermit steel and consequently has a lower shrinkage. 
Therefore when the molten thermit, with its ter- 
rific heat, cools there is a large shrinkage. Thermit 
steel being much stronger than gray iron, its shrink- 
ing sometimes strains and cracks the iron casting. 

In spite of this difficulty very successful repairs 
have been made on cast-iron and it has been found 
that by mixing 2 per cent, of ferro-silicon and 1 
per cent, pure manganese with the thermit for weld- 
ing, a thermit steel is formed which is very soft and 
comes close to the properties of gray iron. By 
using this mixture important welds have been made 
on cast-iron flywheels, water wheels, and other cast- 
iron parts with great success. 

While industry is making progress with all these 
uses of thermit, science is experimenting all the time 
to add to the scope of the process. As was pointed 
out before, many other metals can be reduced to a 
high degree of purity with this process and in the 
laboratories they are always trying new ones and 
working out new formulas. Of the pure metals that 



248 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

can be reduced by the thermit process there are 
chromium, which is 98 to 99 per cent, pure; man- 
ganese, which is 96 per cent, pure; and molybdenum, 
which is 98 to 99 per cent. pure. These are used 
in the manufacture of very hard steel, such as armour 
plate, and "high-speed steel." Among the alloys, or 
mixtures of metals, there are chromium-manganese, 
manganese titanium, ferro-titanium, ferro-vanadium, 
and ferro-boron, all of which have uses in industry 
and help us to travel faster and more safely by 
railroad, electric train, and steamship. 

It may have occurred to some bright boy that, 
since this heat is so intense and so handy, it might 
be a good way to make steam in locomotive boilers, 
or cook our meals, but it will be remembered that 
the heat is all over within a few minutes. In other 
words, where a terrific heat is required for a few 
seconds, thermit will fill the bill, but w r here a continu- 
ous heat for many hours is needed, electricity, gas, 
coal, coke, oil, or wood are better. The high cost 
of aluminum would probably prevent the thermit 
process coming into use in the manufacture of steel 
for our armour plate, ship plate, or structural steel, 
at least for a good many years. 

Earlier in this chapter I said that the slag, or alumi- 
num oxide, from the thermit process was an almost 
useless product. This is not the precise scientific truth, 
for the slag becomes a black powder such as is used 
in making emery wheels, but the slag from thermit 



STEEL BOILED LIKE WATER 249 

is never actually used for this. Another use for the 
slag from the thermit process in which chromium is 
used has been discovered. Potters use a material 
called corundum, which this slag resembles, except 
that it is superior to natural corundum in pottery 
manufacturing because of its freedom from metallic 
impurities. The slag can be mixed with clay and 
baked. It is especially useful in chemical apparatus 
that must withstand great extremes of temperature, 
because its experience has so tempered it that nothing 
less than a heat equal to that of the sun would give 
it much concern. 

Another interesting thing about the slag from 
chromium thermit is that small rubies have been 
found in it. The scientific explanation is that they 
are nothing but crystallized alumina, coloured with 
chromium. The jewels usually are too small for any 
commercial purpose but serve as a very striking 
example of the intensity of the thermit fire. All the 
real jewels, diamonds, rubies, emeralds, amethysts, 
and so on, were formed by the terrific heat in the 
bosom of the earth millions of years ago when it was 
cooling down from gases hotter than anything we 
can possibly conceive of, to a molten ball, then to 
a solid redhot mass and then to a globe sufficiently 
cool on the outside to be crusted over. That they 
can be made in this little chemical furnace shows 
how far science has gone in imitation of the wonders 
of nature. 



250 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

AUTOGENOUS WELDING AND CUTTING 

"Now," said the scientist, after he and his young 
friend had finished some experiments, and were 
ready to talk about autogenous welding, "imagine 
a little white flame no bigger than a pencil point at 
the end of a brass pipe about the size, and not 
entirely unlike in appearance the old-fashioned taper 
holder with which you used to light the gas, and you 
have before you in the rough, a picture of one of the 
oxy-acetylene torches that will in a few minutes weld 
two pieces of almost any metal, or in a few seconds 
cut a solid plate of the hardest steel of several inches 
thickness almost as fast and easy as a carpenter 
could saw a board, and yet without taking the temper 
out of the metal.' ' 

Picking up what seemed to be a little brass rod 
bent at the end, the man turned a valve, applied 
a match, and as the gas burned up with a beautiful 
little flame of dazzling whiteness, he continued: 

"This tiny flame, so easily controlled, is hotter 
than any produced by man except that generated 
by the electrical furnace, for it reaches a temperature 
of about 6,300 degrees Fahrenheit. Previous to the 
invention of these wonderful torches the oxy -hydrogen 
was the hottest gas flame, but it only reached a 
temperature of 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit." 

"How do you use it? " asked the boy. 

"Well, for instance, Uncle Sam is enabled to weld 



STEEL BOILED LIKE WATER 251 

and cut steel plate in building his battleships, steel- 
workers to carry on their gigantic tasks, and wreckers 
to clear away tangled masses of steel beams far 
more quickly and easily than with the older meth- 
ods. 

"If you had visited one of the navy yards, a ship- 
yard or any place where big work in iron and steel 
was being carried on as short a time as three years 
ago, you would have seen a man sitting for hours 
saw r ing away on the end of a steel beam, for instance, 
trying to cut it down to the required length. He 
would dull many saws, use a great deal of energy, 
and an appalling amount of the most valuable thing 
in the world — time. Again, you would have seen 
them welding pieces of iron and steel by the old 
blacksmith method, or riveting other pieces that 
could not be joined by heating them and pressing 
them together. 

"To-day you would see fewer of these processes 
because autogenous welding and cutting by the 
powerful little oxy -acetylene torches is revolutionizing 
certain methods of working with metals. Instead 
of squatting at the end of the beam and sawing away 
like an old-fashioned carpenter, the modern iron 
worker takes up his little torch, turns a valve in the 
handle and concentrates the flame on the steel beam 
that he wishes cut. Almost instantly a shower of 
sparks on the under side of the beam shows him 
that the flame has burned its way through. Then 



252 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

he slowly moves the flame along the line where he 
desires to cut and the trick is done." 

Illustrating with his own little laboratory torch, 
the scientist continued his explanation, saying that 
cutting is only one of the many uses to which this 
modern invention in steel working is put. Not quite 
so spectacular but every bit as useful is the autoge- 
nous welding by means of these magic wands. Weld- 
ing metals has ever been more or less unsatisfactory. 
The old process of heating the two ends and then 
beating them together is cumbersome and practically 
impossible in many cases. Consequently inventors 
have sought other welding processes w^ith wider 
application and greater facility ever since the first 
metal workers of earliest times forged crude chains 
and weapons. With this modern device two pieces 
of steel or other metal are brought to within a small 
fraction of an inch of each other and by the use of 
the oxyacetylene torch and a thin strip or rod of 
metal are melted and fused together. 

Although the acetylene flame gives off a far greater 
proportion of light than heat, it is a very powerful 
gas and Le Chetalier, a French inventor, was sure 
that he could put it to other uses than furnishing 
lights for automobiles, etc. To this end he tried 
mixing acetylene gas with oxygen, for there can be 
no fire or combustion without oxygen. He very 
properly figured that by introducing pure oxygen into 
the acetylene, the burning, or combustion, would be 



STEEL BOILED LIKE WATER 253 

greater, and the heat of the flame greatly intensified. 
His experiments were ultimately successful, and it was 
then only a short step to the time when three differ- 
ent oxy-acetylene torches were in use. In France 
there were developed low pressure, medium pressure, 
and high pressure torches; but the last named has 
not been found commercially practicable in the 
United States, where the "medium pressure' ' torch 
is sometimes called the high pressure. As we are 
dealing entirely with the American use of the inven- 
tion we also will call the two kinds of torches used 
here the low pressure and the high pressure. 

The general principle of the torch is, as we see, 
the mixture of oxygen with acetylene in order to 
obtain a hotter flame, but right here we come to the 
difference between the low-pressure and the high- 
pressure tools. Both are made of brass pipes, ter- 
minating in the burning tip and connected at the 
rear of the handle with rubber tubes which run to 
the separate tanks holding the acetylene gas and 
the oxygen, but the method by which these gases 
are combined in the torch constitutes the principle 
differences in the two systems, with the consequent 
greater or less efficiency claimed by the manufac- 
turers. Without going into the technical details, 
which are a matter of controversy between scientists 
as well as the various commercial concerns interested 
in the torches, it will be sufficient to say that in the 
low-pressure torch the acetylene gas is only used 



254 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

under a pressure of a few ounces, with the oxygen 
under a much heavier pressure, while in the high- 
pressure torches, the acetylene and oxygen both are 
under an appreciable pressure of several pounds. 

Thus in the low-pressure torch invented by Fouche, 
the oxygen is forced out of the nozzle by the pressure 
and the outrush sucks out the acetylene in the proper 
quantities. The two gases mix in a chamber at the 
end of the torch just above the tip and flow out into 
the air in this mixed form. The proportions of the 
gases in the low-pressure tool are about 1.7 of oxygen 
to 1.0 of acetylene. 

The high-pressure torch, which has largely taken 
the place of the low-pressure one in France, and 
which we also see most frequently in this country, 
has a different method of mixing the gases, due to the 
fact that they both are under pressure. According 
to many authorities the tip where the gases are mixed 
is by far the most important factor in the success 
or failure of the tool. In the high-pressure torch 
the oxygen enters the tip from a hole in the centre, 
while the acetylene enters it from twx> holes, one on 
each side. They meet under high pressure at the 
upper end of the tip, and have the length of the 
hollow tip in which to mix, before they strike the air. 
The long, narrow hole in the tip is called the mixing 
chamber. Those who are interested in the high-pres- 
sure torch declare that it is the fact that the gases are 
positively mixed in proper proportion in the detach- 



STEEL BOILED LIKE WATER 255 

able tip, that so greatly adds to the efficiency of the 
tool. They declare that by allowing the acetylene to 
enter the tip laterally, at right angles with the oxygen, 
the blast of the oxygen is broken as it mixes with the 
acetylene, and the tendency of an oxygen flame to 
oxidize any metal with which it comes in contact by 
reason of an excess of oxygen in the flame is largely 
done away with. This, with the small diameter of the 
mixing chamber and the friction with the walls, gives 
a perfect mixture, according to the claims of the high- 
pressure torch enthusiasts. Moreover, the small hole 
which is the mixing chamber, effectually prevents seri- 
ous accidents by flash-backs of the highly explosive 
acetylene, and also provides a much easier method 
of control. Each outfit has several different sizes 
of tips for various kinds of work. 

The pressure under which the two gases are used 
is the other big difference between the high-pressure 
and the low-pressure torches, as said before. In the 
the high-pressure tool the oxygen is compressed about 
the same as in the low-pressure torch, while the 
acetylene is under several pounds pressure, just in 
accordance with the size of the tip used. In the 
low-pressure torch the pressure on the acetylene 
is only about ten ounces to the square inch, or only 
enough to keep it flowing. On account of this 
difference in the pressure making the big difference 
in the mixture of the gases, scientists have chosen 
to call the low-pressure torches injector mixture 



256 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

types, from the fact that the acetylene is sucked into 
the tip by an injector system, while the high-pressure 
torches are called positive mixture types, because 
the gases are mixed directly by pressure. In the 
latest high-pressure tool the mixture of gases is 1.14 
parts of oxygen to 1 part of acetylene, while the low- 
pressure torch takes a proportion of 1.7 parts of 
oxygen to 1 part of acetylene. 

The torches also vary in size from the little 8- 
ounce "jeweller's" torch, that the scientist used, 
to nineteen to twenty inches long and a weight of 
two and a quarter pounds. The average size, how- 
ever, is twelve inches long with a weight of one pound. 
The welding torch is made up of two brass tubes, one 
for the acetylene and the other for the oxygen, con- 
nected at the two ends. At the nozzle end there 
is a sharp turn in the piping so that the tip is very 
nearly at right angles to the main pipes. At the 
handle end, are the connections for the rubber tubes 
that lead to the gas tanks, and the little valves by 
which the operator can control the flow of gas. The 
pipes carrying the gases to the tip are the same 
size the whole length, but at one end are enclosed 
in a larger tube, which serves as a handle. 

Now that we have seen the general construction 
of the oxy-acetylene torches, we will assume that the 
tanks, which look like large soda-water reservoirs, 
are filled with pure oxygen and acetylene gas, and 
transported to some convenient point in a railroad 



STEEL BOILED LIKE WATER 257 

repair shop where great forges are spurting flames, 
and one can hardly hear the talk of a man beside him 
for the roar of the hammers and the compressed air 
riveters. Assume that some large expensive steel 
part of a locomotive has been broken and must be 
repaired quickly so that the engine can go out on the 
road to help haul an accumulation of freight. 

In the old days an engine would have to be taken 
apart, a new part turned out at the steel mill, 
shipped to the shops, and the locomotive put to- 
gether again. Nowadays it is only necessary to 
take enough of the machinery apart for the work- 
men to get at the broken parts. After cutting 
off the edges to be welded so that they make a 
small V, and supporting them within the fraction 
of an inch apart in the exact position and shape that 
they are to be repaired, the workman selects a rod 
of steel or iron, to use in somewhat the same way 
the tinker uses a strip of solder when he wants to 
repair a break in a kettle with solder and soldering 
iron. 

The selection of this filling rod, or wire, is all- 
important, for the skilful and successful iron worker 
uses a piece of metal that will fuse well with the 
parts to be repaired, at about the same temperature 
at which they themselves will fuse. Mild steel or 
Norway iron which is 90 per cent, pure is frequently 
used, but there are no hard and fast rules because 
every master mechanic has his own ideas about such 



258 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

things, and would not take the word of any manu- 
facturing company. 

Then the operator turns on his torch, lights it 
with a match, takes it in one hand, and the rod of 
welding steel in the other. Holding the end of the 
steel rod at the thin crack or bevelled edges between 
the pieces to be welded the operator directs the small 
flame on the point, holding the tip of the torch about 
a quarter to a half inch from the metal. It only 
takes a few seconds for the terrific heat of the flame 
to melt the strip of steel and the edges of the parts 
to be welded so that they all are fused together in 
one perfect mass. 

Strange as it may seem, the brass tip of the torch 
does not melt in this heat because the pressure behind 
the gases forces them out with such velocity that the 
flame is far enough removed from the tip to do it no 
injury, just so long as the operator does not put the 
tip square against the metal and drive the flame back 
against it. This not only would melt the tip but 
probably would cause a flash-back in the torch. 

As the end of the strip melts into the crack the 
operator moves up the steel, and moves his torch 
along the crack until the whole operation is com- 
plete. At the end the weld is very rough but when 
it is machined down it may be so perfect that it is 
difficult to tell where it was made, and the strength 
is equal to that of any other part of the piece. 

In other words, the weld becomes homogenous 



STEEL BOILED LIKE WATER 259 

with the parts repaired. From this fact autogenous 
welding takes its name. Autogenous is defined as 
"self produced/' or independent of outside materials. 

Thus, we see that the autogenous process is a 
system of putting on new material, without either 
heating, compression, or adding flux (molten mate- 
rial) to the broken parts. In the foregoing para- 
graphs we have taken up the welding of steel parts, 
but the process can be as well applied to steel pipe, 
steel plate, iron, cast-iron, aluminum, copper, and 
other materials with only slight variations in the 
manner of using the torch. 

The cutting process is even more spectacular be- 
cause while the welding proceeds quietly, the cutting 
is accompanied by just enough fireworks to show 
us the progress of the tiny flame through the hardest 
and thickest of metals. 

The cutting torch is the same as the welding torch 
with the exception of an additional pipe from which 
flows a jet of pure oxygen to give the flame the 
necessary cutting property. The greater the supply 
of oxygen the greater the combustion, and the more 
penetrating the flame. The acetylene gas flame heats 
up the steel — "fills the office of a preheater," 
said the scientist — while the oxygen jet follows close 
behind and makes a thin cut through the hot metal. 

The extra pipe is the same size as the others and 
extends down to the end of the torch at an angle where 
its tip is clamped alongside the main tip. The rear 



260 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

end of the third tube is connected with a rubber hose 
like the others, which extends to the oxygen tank. 
The flow of oxygen is under higher, and individual 
working pressure, controlled by a valve. In a new 
style torch the extra hose is done away with and 
the separation of the oxygen is done in the torch. 

When the modern steel carpenter wants to cut 
a hole, or saw off a strip from a piece of steel, no 
matter whether it be a steel beam, steel plate, or 
almost any other form of iron (except cast-iron), 
he attaches the cutting pipe, lights his torch and 
sets to work. Holding the tool about half an 
inch from the surface he directs the little blue 
flame, which is no more than three quarters of an 
inch long, and a quarter of an inch thick, against 
the spot where he desires to start cutting. He 
holds it there a few seconds, then there is a shower 
of sparks on the under side of the steel plate, 
indicating that the flame has eaten its way all 
the way through. The operator next moves the torch 
along the line where he wants to cut. The speed 
with which he can move is governed by the thick- 
ness of the steel to be cut. Half-inch ship steel, 
for instance, could be cut at a rate of more than a 
foot a minute. The heat of the flame melts a little 
of the steel, which drops down in molten particles, 
but the edge that is cut is sharp and clean, and its 
temper is as perfect as if the cutting were done with 
one of the laborious old-fashioned steel saws. 




TINY 200-HORSEPOWER TURBINE 

This engine could almost be covered by a derby hat. A part of the 
casing is removed to show the smooth disks 




THE TESLA TURBINE PUMP 

Driven by a y^-horsepower motor. The little pump here shown is 
delivering 40 gallons of water per minute against a 9-foot head 



STEEL BOILED LIKE WATER 261 

This cutting process is of especial value to navy 
yards, shipyards, and wreckers, where there is a 
great deal of steel to be cut. Uncle Sam uses it at 
most of his navy yards, for in building his battleships 
there are thousands and thousands of holes to be cut 
in steel plates, plates to be shaped, and beams to be 
cut off to required lengths. 

When the scientist and his young friend visited 
the Brooklyn Navy Yard to see this process in opera- 
tion the naval constructors had made considerable 
headway on the framework of the great Dreadnaught 
New York, in course of building there. The huge 
steel ribs of the ship towered upward amid the 
scaffolding nearly as high as a five-story building. 
In laying this steel framework, and shaping the 
plates that will make the hull, bulkheads, and decks, 
there will be millions of holes to be cut, and virtually 
miles and miles of plates to be shaped. Instead of 
sawing these the workmen were cutting them with 
the oxy -acetylene torches. 

Half a dozen men were at work, all cutting as fast 
as possible, and the great steel plates, and beams were 
coming and going as quickly as ever boards were 
passed along by a carpenter. The lines that were 
to be cut were all marked out in advance so the 
men never put out their torches. The only cessation 
in the work was when one of them stopped for a 
minute or so, to wipe his eyes, for in spite of the 
dark goggles worn by all operators of the oxy- 



268 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

acetylene process the intense flame is very hard on 
the eyes. 

One reason why the cutting process is so popular in 
shipyards is because in making steel ships, holes are 
cut in the plates, ribs, and beams, wherever possible 
without lessening the strength, to lighten the frame. 

Probably the most picturesque use of the cutting 
device is by wreckers of steel structures. Nowadays 
whenever there is a bad fire the building is left a tan- 
gled mass of steel pipes and girders that can only be 
cleared away with the greatest risk of life, and the 
greatest difficulty. The process always was a long, ted- 
ious one until the oxy-acetylene cutting came into use. 

Thousands of New York boys saw the device in 
use during the winter of 1911-1912 when they visited 
the ruins of the Equitable Life Assurance Society 
fire. The sight is unmistakable. Far up in the ruins 
you see a man bending over a great twisted steel 
beam that it might take weeks to pull out of the 
debris. Soon there is a shower of sparks, and the 
part that is sticking out is cut off and ready to be 
sent to the street and hauled aw^ay. The device 
has been used in the ruins of a large number of 
disastrous fires, lately, particularly where men have 
been entombed in the collapse of ceilings, and haste 
means everything in getting out their bodies. Also, 
it w r as very successfully used in cutting up the old 
battleship Maine before the hull was removed from 
Havana harbour. 



CHAPTER VIII 
THE TESLA TURBINE 

DR. NIKOLA TESLA TELLS OF HIS NEW STEAM TURBINE 
ENGINE A MODEL OF WHICH, THE SIZE OF A DERBY 
HAT, DEVELOPS MORE THAN 110 HORSEPOWER 

HOW would you like to have an engine for 
your motor boat that you could almost 
cover with a man's derby hat and yet which 
would give 110 horsepower?" asked the scientist of 
his young friend one day when they had been talking 
about boats and engines. 

" I never heard of any real engine as small as that, " 
said the boy. "I used to play with toy engines, but 
they wouldn't give anywhere near one horsepower, 
much less 110." 

"Well, I think I can show you a little engine that, 
for mechanical simplicity and power is about the 
most wonderful thing you ever have seen, if you would 
like to make another visit to Dr. Nikola Tesla, who 
told us all about his invention for the wireless trans- 
mission of power the other day. Doctor Tesla 
invented this little engine and he is going to do groat 
things with it." 

263 



264 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

Of course the boy jumped at the opportunity, for 
what real boy would miss a chance to find out all 
about a new and powerful engine? 

"Is it a gasoline engine? " he asked. 

"No, it is a steam turbine, but if you know any- 
thing at all about turbines you will see that it is 
entirely different from any you ever have seen, for 
Doctor Tesla has used a principle as old as the hills 
and one which has been known to men for centuries, 
but which never before has been applied in me- 
chanics. 55 

After a little more talk the scientist promised to 
arrange with Tesla to take the young man over to the 
great Waterside power-house, New York, where the 
inventor is testing out his latest invention. We will 
follow them there and see what this wonderful little 
turbine looks like. 

Picking his way amid the powerful machinery and 
the maze of switchboards, the scientist finally 
stopped in front of a little device that seemed like 
a toy amid the gigantic machines of the power-house. 

"This is the small turbine/ 5 says Tesla. "It 
will do pretty well for its size. 55 

The little engine looked like a small steel drum 
about ten inches in diameter and a couple of inches 
wide, with a shaft running through the centre. 
Various kinds of gauges were attached at different 
points. Outside of the gauges and the base upon 
which it was mounted, the engine almost could have 






THE TESLA TURBINE 265 

been covered by a derby hat. The whole thing, 
gauges and all, practically could have been covered by 
an ordinary hat box. 

Yet when Tesla gave the word, and his assistant 
turned on the steam, the small dynamo to which 
the turbine shaft was geared, instantly began to run 
at terrific speed. Apparently the machine began 
to run at full speed instantly instead of gradually 
working up to it. There was no sound except the 
whir of well-fitted machinery. "Under tests," said 
Tesla, "this little turbine has developed 110 horse- 
power." 

Just think of it, a little engine that you could lift 
with one hand, giving 110 horsepower! 

"But we can do better than that," added the in- 
ventor, "for with a steam pressure of 125 pounds at 
the inlet, running 9,000 revolutions per minute, the 
engine will develop 200 brake-horsepower." 

Nearby was another machine a ttle larger than 
the first, which seemed to be two identical Tesla 
turbines with the central shafts connected by a strong 
spring. Gauges of different kinds, to show how the 
engine stood the tests, were attached at various 
places. When Tesla gave the word to open the 
throttle on the twin machines the spring connecting 
the shafts, without a second's pause, began to revolve, 
so that it looked like a solid bar of polished steel. 
Outside of a low, steady hum and a slight vibration 
in the floor, that steadied down after the engine 



266 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

had been running a little while, there was no indica- 
tion that enough horsepower to run machinery a 
hundred times the weight and size of the turbine was 
being generated. 

"You see, for testing purposes/' said Doctor 
Tesla, "I have these two turbines connected by this 
torsion spring. The steam is acting in opposite 
directions in the two machines. In one, the heat 
energy is converted into mechanical power. In the 
other, mechanical power is turned back into heat. 
One is working against the other, and by means of 
this gauge we can tell how much the spring is twisted 
and consequently how much power we are developing. 
Every degree marked off on this scale indicates 
twenty-two horsepower." The beam of light on the 
gauge stood at the division marked " 10." 

"Two hundred and twenty horsepower," said 
Doctor Tesla. "We can do better than that." 
He opened the steam valves a trifle more, giving 
more power to the motive end of the combination 
and more resistance to the "brake" end. The scale 
indicated 330 horsepower. "These casings are not 
constructed for much higher steam pressure, or I 
could show you something more wonderful than that. 
These engines could readily develop 1,000 horse- 
power. 

"'These little turbines represent what mechanical 
engineers have been dreaming of since steam power 
was invented — the perfect rotary engine," con- 



THE TESLA TURBINE 267 

tinued Doctor Tesla, as he led the way back to his 
office. "My turbine will give at least twenty-five 
times as much power to the pound of weight as 
the lightest weight engines made to date. You 
know that the lightest and most powerful gasoline 
engines used on aeroplanes nowadays generally de- 
velop only one horsepower to two and one half pounds 
of weight. With that much weight my turbine will 
develop twenty-five horsepower. 

"That is not all, for the turbine is probably the 
cheapest engine to build ever invented. Its mechan- 
ical simplicity is such that any good mechanic could 
build it, and any good mechanic could repair such 
parts as get out of order. When I can show you the 
inside of one of the turbines, in a few moments, 
however, you will see that there is nothing to 
get out of order such as most turbines have, and 
that it is not subjected to the heavy strains and 
jerks that all reciprocating engines and other turbines 
must stand. Also you will see that my turbine will 
run forward or backward, just as we desire, will run 
with steam, water, gas, or air, and can be used as a 
pump or an air compressor, just as well as an engine." 

"But most of your research has been in elec- 
tricity," Tesla was reminded, for no one can forget 
that Tesla's inventions largely have made possible 
most of the world's greatest electrical power devel- 
opments. 

"Yes," he answered, "but I was a mechanical 



268 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

engineer before I was an electrical engineer, and 
besides, this principle was worked out in the course 
of my search for the ideal motor for airships, to be 
used in conjunction with my invention for the wire- 
less transmission of electrical power. For twenty 
years I worked on the problem, but I have not given 
up. When my plan is perfected the present-day 
aeroplanes and dirigible balloons will disappear, and 
the dange ous sport of aviation, as we know it now 
with its hundreds of accidents, and its picturesque 
birdmen, will give way to safe, seaworthy airships, 
without wings or gas bags, but supported and driven 
by mechanical means. 

"As I told you before when we were talking of 
the wireless transmission of power, the mechanism 
will be a development of the principle on which my 
turbine is constructed. It will be so tremendously 
powerful that it will make a veritable rope of air 
above the great machine to hold it at any altitude 
the navigators may choose, and also a rope of air 
in front or in the rear to send it forward or 
backward at almost any speed desired. When that 
day comes, airship travel will be as safe and prosaic 
as travel by railroad train to-day, and not very much 
different, except that there will be no dirt, and it 
will be much faster. One will be able to dine in 
New York, retire in an aero Pullman berth in a closed 
and perfectly furnished car, and arise to breakfast 
in London." 



THE TESLA TURBINE 269 

Tesla's plans for the airship are far in the future, 
but his turbine is a thing of the present, and it has 
been declared by some of the most eminent authori- 
ties in the world in mechanical engineering to be the 
greatest invention of a century. The reason for 
this is not altogether on account of the wonderful 
feats of Tesla's model turbines, but because in them 
he has shown the world an entirely unused mechani- 
cal principle which can be applied in a thousand 
useful ways. 

James Watt discovered and put to work the ex- 
pansive power of steam, by which the piston of an 
engine is pushed back and forth in the cylinder of 
an engine, but it has remained for Nikola Tesla 
to prove that it is not necessary for the steam to 
have something to push upon — that the most 
powerful engine yet shown to the world works 
through a far simpler mechanism than any yet used 
for turning a gas or a fluid into the driving force of 
machinery. 

"How did you come to invent your turbine while 
you were busy with your wonderful electrical in- 
ventions ?" Tesla was asked. 

" You see, " he answered, "while I was trying to solve 
the problem of aerial navigation by electrical means, 
the gasoline motor was perfected; and aviation 
as we know it to-day became a fact. I consider the 
aeroplane as it has been developed little more than 
a passing phase of air navigation. Aeroplaning 



270 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

makes delightful sport, no doubt, but as it is now it 
can never be practical in commerce. Consequently 
I abandoned for the time being my attempts to find 
the ideal airship motor in electricity, and for several 
years studied hard on the problem as one of me- 
chanics. Finally I hit upon the central idea of the 
new turbine I have just been showing you." 

"What is this principle?" 

"The idea of my turbine is based simply on two 
properties known to science for hundreds of years, but 
never in all the world's history used in this way 
before. These properties are adhesion and viscosity. 
Any boy can test them. For instance, put a little 
water on a sheet of metal. Most of it will roll off, 
but a few drops will remain until they evaporate. 
The metal does not absorb the water so the only 
thing that makes the water remain on the metal is 
adhesion — in other words, it adheres, or sticks to 
the metal. 

"Then, too, you will notice that the drop of water 
will assume a certain shape and that it will remain 
in that form until you make it change by some 
outside force — by disturbing it by touch or holding 
it so that the attraction of gravitation will make it 
change. 

"The simple little experiment reveals the vis- 
cosity of water, or, in other words, reveals the 
property of the molecules which go to make up the 
water, of sticking to each other. It is these properties 






THE TESLA TURBINE 271 

of adhesion and viscosity that cause the 'skin friction' 
that impedes a ship in its progress through the water, 
or an aeroplane in going through the air. All fluids 
have these qualities — and you must keep in mind 
that air is a fluid, all gases are fluid, steam is fluid. 
Every known means of transmitting or developing 
mechanical power is through a fluid medium. 

"It is a surprising fact that gases and vapours are 
possessed of this property of viscosity to a greater 
degree than are liquids such as water. Owing to 
these properties, if a solid body is moved through a 
fluid, more or less of the fluid is dragged along, or if 
a solid is put in a fluid that is moving it is carried 
along with the current. Also you are familiar with the 
great rush of air that follows a swiftly moving train. 
That simply means that the train tends to carry the 
air along with it, as the air tries to adhere to the surface 
of the cars, and the particles of air try to stick together. 
You would be surprised if you could have a picture 
of the great train of moving air that follows you 
about merely as you walk through this room. 

"Now, in all the history of mechanical engineering, 
these properties have not been turned to the full use of 
man, although, as I said before, they have been known 
to exist for centuries. When I hit upon the idea that 
a rotary engine would run through their application, 
I began a series of very successful experiments." 

Tesla went on to explain that all turbines, and in 
fact all engines, are based on the idea that the steam 



272 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

must have something to push against. We shall see 
a little later how these engines were developed, but 
it will suffice for the moment to listen to Doctor 
Tesla's explanation. 

"All of the successful turbines up to the time of 
my invention/' he says, "give the steam something 
to push upon. For instance" — taking a pencil and 
a piece of paper — "we will consider this circle, the 
disk, or rotor of an ordinary turbine. You under- 
stand it is the wheel to which the shaft is attached, 
and which turns the shaft, transmitting power to the 
machinery. Now it is a large wheel and along the 
outer edge is a row of little blades, or vanes, or 
buckets. The steam is turned against these blades, 
or buckets, in jets from pipes set around the wheel at 
close intervals, and the force of the steam on the 
blades turns the wheel at very high speed and gives 
us the power of what we call a ' prime mover' — that 
is, power which we can convert into electricity, or 
which we can use to drive all kinds of machinery. Now 
see what a big wheel it is and what a very small part of 
the wheel is used in giving us power — only the outer 
edge where the steam can push against the blades. 

"In my new turbine the steam pushes against the 
whole wheel all at once, utilizing all the space wasted 
in other turbines. There are no blades or vanes or 
sockets or anything for the steam to push against, 
for I have proved that they hinder the efficiency of the 
turbine rather than increase it." 



THE TESLA TURBINE 273 

Comparing his turbine to other engines Tesla says, 
"In reciprocating engines of the older type the 
power-giving portion — the cylinder, piston, etc. — 
is no more than a fraction of 1 per cent, of the total 
weight of material used in construction. The present 
form of turbine, with an efficiency of about 62 
per cent., was a great advance, but even in this form 
of machine scarcely more than 1 per cent, or 2 per 
cent, is used in actually generating power at a given 
moment. The only part of the great wheel that is 
used in actually making power is the outside edge 
where the steam pushes on the buckets. 

"The new turbine offers a striking contrast using 
as it does practically the entire material of the power- 
giving portion of the engine. The result is an 
economy that gives an efficiency of 80 per cent, to 
90 per cent. With sufficient boiler capacity on a 
vessel such as the Mauretania, it would be perfectly 
easy to develop, instead of some 70,000 horsepower, 
4,000,000 horsepower Jn the same space — and this 
is a conservative estimate. 

'You see this is obtained by the new application 
of this principle in physics which never has been used 
before, by which we can economize on space and 
weight so that the most of the engine is given over 
to power producing parts in which there is little 
waste material." 

Tesla then went on to explain the details of his 
new turbine. Leading the way to a small model in 



274 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

his office he unscrewed a few bolts and lifted off the 
top half of the round steel drum or casing. Inside 
were a number of perfectly smooth, circular disks 
mounted upon one central shaft — the shaft that ex- 
tends through the machine, and corresponds to the 
crankshaft of an ordinary engine. The disks all 
were securely fastened to the rod so that they could 
not revolve without making it also turn in its care- 
fully adjusted bearings. The disks, which were only 
about one sixteenth of an inch in thickness, and which 
he said were constructed of the finest quality of steel, 
were placed close together at regular intervals, so 
that a space of only about an eighth of an inch inter- 
vened between them. They were solid with the 
exception of a hole close to the centre. The set of 
disks is called the rotor or runner. 

When the casing is clamped down tight, the steam 
is sent through an inlet or nozzle at the side, so that 
it enters at the periphery or outside edge of the set 
of disks, at a tangent to the circle of the rotor. Of 
course the steam is shot into the turbine under high 
pressure so that all its force is turned into speed, 
or what the scientists call velocity-energy. The 
steel casing of the rotor naturally gives the steam the 
circular course of the disks, and as it travels around 
the disks the vapour adheres to them, and the 
particles of steam adhere to each other. By the law 
that Tesla has invoked, the steam drags the disks 
around with it. As the speed of the disks increases 



THE TESLA TURBINE 



275 



the path of the steam lengthens, and at an aver- 
age speed the steam actually travels a distance of 
twelve to fifteen feet. Starting at the outside edge of 
the disks it travels around and around in con- 
stantly narrowing circles as the steam pressure 
decreases until it finally reaches the holes in the disks 
at their centre, and there passes out. These holes, 




DIAGRAM OF THE TESLA TURBINE 

A — Steam Inlet. B — Disks. C — Path of the Steam. 
D, D' D" — Exhaust. E — Reverse Inlet. F — Shaft. 

then, we see act as the exhaust for the used-up steam, 
for by the time the steam, which was shot into the 
turbine by the nozzle under high pressure, reaches 
the exhaust, it registers no more than about two 
pounds gauge pressure. 

For reasons which will be explained later, ordinary 
turbines cannot be reversed, but Tesla's invention 



276 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

can run backward just as easily as forward. The 
reverse action is accomplished simply by placing 
another nozzle inlet on the other side of the rotor so 
that the steam can be turned off from the right side 
of the engine, for instance, and turned into the left 
side, immediately reversing its direction, with the 
change in the direction of the steam. The action 
is instantaneous, too, for as we saw in the experiments 
Tesla showed us, the turbine began to run at practi- 
cally top speed as soon as the steam was turned on. 

The disks in the little 110-horsepower engine which 
we saw, were only a little larger than a derby hat 
were only nine and three quarter inches in diameter, 
while in his larger turbines he simply increases the 
diameter of the disks. 

Tesla further explained that the 110-horsepower 
turbine represented a single stage engine, or one 
composed simply of one rotor. Where greater power 
is required he explained that it would be easy to 
compound a number of rotors to a double, or triple 
or even what he calls a multi, or many stage, turbine. 
In engineering the single stage is called one complete 
power unit, and a large engine could be made up of 
as many units as needed, or practicable. 

"Then do you mean to say," Tesla was asked, 
"that the only thing that makes the engine revolve 
at this tremendous speed is the passage of steam 
through the spaces between those smooth disks?" 

"Yes, that is all," he answered, "but as I explained 



THE TESLA TURBINE 277 

before, the steam travels all the way from the outer 
edge to the centre of the disks, working on them all 
the time; whereas in the ordinary turbines the steam 
only works on the outside edge, and all the rest of 
the wheel is useless. By the time it leaves the exhaust 
of my engine practically all the energy of the steam 
has been put into the machine." 

This is only one of the many advantages that 
Tesla points out in his invention, for the turbine 
is the exemplification of a principle, and hence more 
than a mechanical achievement. "With a 1,000- 
horsepower engine weighing only 100 pounds, imag- 
ine the possibility in automobiles, locomotives, and 
steamships," he says. 

Explaining the large engines that he is testing, 
one against the other, at the power plant, the 
inventor said: 

''Inside of the casings of the two larger turbines 
the disks are eighteen inches in diameter and one 
thirty-second of an inch thick. There are twenty- 
three of them, spaced a little distance apart, the 
whole making up a total thickness of three and one 
half inches. The steam, entering at the periphery, 
follows a spiral path toward the centre, where 
openings are provided through which it exhausts. 
As the disks rotate and the speed increases the path 
of the steam lengthens until it completes a number 
of turns before reaching the outlet — and it is 
working all the time. 



278 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

"Moreover, every engineer knows that, when 
fluid is used as a vehicle of energy, the highest 
possible economy can be obtained only when the 
changes in the direction and velocity of movement 
of the fluid are made as gradual and easy as possible. 
In previous forms of turbines more or less sudden 
changes of speed and direction are involved. 

"By that I mean to say," explained Doctor Tesla, 
"that in reciprocating engines with pistons, the 
power comes from the backward and forward jerks 
of the piston rod, and in other turbines the steam 
must travel a zigzag path from one vane or blade 
to another all the whole length of the turbine. This 
causes both changes in velocity and direction and 
impairs the efficiency of the machine. In my 
turbine, as you saw, the steam enters at the nozzle 
and travels a natural spiral path without any abrupt 
changes in direction, or anything to hinder its 
velocity. " 

But the Tesla turbine engine, claims the inventor, 
will work just as well by gas as by steam, for as 
he points out gases have the properties of adhesion 
and viscosity just as much as water or steam. 

Further, he says that if the gas were introduced 
intermittently in explosions like those of the gasoline 
engine, the machine would work as efficiently as it 
does with a steady pressure of steam. Consequently 
Tesla declares that his turbine can be developed for 
general use as a gasoline engine. 






THE TESLA TURBINE 279 

The engine is only one application of the prin- 
ciple of Tesla's turbine, because he has used the same 
idea on a pump and an air compressor as successfully 
as on his experimental engines. In his office in the 
Metropolitan Tower he has a number of models. 
Pointing to a little machine on a table, which con- 
sisted of half a dozen small disks three inches in 
diameter, he said: "This is only a toy, but it shows 
the principle of the invention just as well as the 
larger models at the power plant." Tesla turned 
on a small electric motor which was connected with 
a shaft on which the disks were mounted, and it 
began to hum at a high number of revolutions per 
second. 

"This is the principle of the pump," said Tesla. 
"Here the electric motor furnishes the power and we 
have these disks revolving in the air. You need 
no proof to tell you that the air is being agitated 
and propelled violently. If you will hold your hand 
down near the centre of these disks — you see the 
centres have been cut away — you will feel the 
suction as air is drawn in to be expelled from the 
outer edges. 

"Now, suppose these revolving disks were en- 
closed in an air-tight case, so constructed that the 
air could enter only at one point and be expelled 
only at another — what would we have?" 

' You'd have an air pump," was suggested. 

"Exactly — an air pump or a blower," said Doctor 



280 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

Tesla. "There is one now in operation delivering 
ten thousand cubic feet of air a minute/' 

But this was not all, for Tesla showed his visitors 
a wonderful exhibition of the little device at work. 
"To make a pump out of this turbine/' he explained; 
"we simply turn the disks by artificial means and 
introduce the fluid, air or water at the centre of the 
disks, and their rotation, with the properties of ad- 
hesion and viscosity immediately suck up the fluid 
and throw it off at the edges of the disks." 

The inventor led the w T ay to another room, where 
he showed his visitors two small tanks, one above 
the other. The lower one was full of w^ater but the 
upper one was empty. They w^ere connected by a 
pipe which terminated over the empty tank. At the 
side of the lower tank w^as a very small aluminum 
drum in which, Tesla told his visitors, were disks of 
the kind that are used in his turbine. The shaft 
of a little one twelfth horsepower motor adjoining 
was connected with the rotor through the centre of 
the casing. "Inside of this aluminum case are 
several disks mounted on a shaft and immersed in 
w r ater," said Doctor Tesla. "From this lower tank 
the water has free access to the case enclosing the 
disks. This pipe leads from the periphery of the 
case. I turn the current on, the motor turns the 
disks, and as I open this valve in the pipe the water 
flows." 

He turned the valve and the water certainly did 




a. 



C' 



: 




^ 






c 




THOMAS A. EDISOX AND HIS CONCRETE FURNITURE 

The white calir.et is a p'cee of Ediscn's poured concrete furniture, 
while the other one is tJie ordinary wooden phonograph cabinet 




MODEL OF EDISON POURED CONCRETE HOUSE 

This little house, which stands en a table in Edison's 'aboratory, 
what he expects to do with the poured concrete house 



shows 



THE TESLA TURBINE 281 

flow. Instantly a stream that would have filled 
a barrel in a very few minutes began to run out of 
the pipe into the upper part of the tank and thence 
into the lower tank. 

" This is only a toy/ 5 smiled the inventor. " There 
are only half a dozen disks — ' runners/ I call them 
— each less than three inches in diameter, inside 
of that case. They are just like the disks you saw 
on the first motor — no vanes, blades or attachments 
of any kind. Just perfectly smooth, flat disks revolv- 
ing in their own planes and pumping water because 
of the viscosity and adhesion of the fluid. One such 
pump now in operation, with eight disks, eighteen 
inches in diameter, pumps 4,000 gallons a minute to a 
height of 360 feet. 

"From all these things, you can see the possibili- 
ties of the new turbine," he continued. "It will 
give ten horsepower to one pound of weight, which 
is twenty-five times as powerful as many light weight 
aeroplane engines, which give one horsepower of 
energy for every two and one half pounds of weight. 

"Moreover, the machine is one of the cheapest and 
simplest to build ever invented and it has the distinct 
advantage of having practically nothing about it 
to get out of order. There are no fine adjustments, 
as the disks do not have to be placed with more than 
ordinary accuracy, and there are no fine clearances, 
because the casing does not have to fit more than 
conveniently close. As you see, there are no blades 



THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

or buckets to get broken or to get out of order. These 
things, combined with the easy reversibility, simplic- 
ity of the machine when used either as an engine, a 
pump or an air compressor, and the possibility of using 
it either with steam, gas, air, or water as motive power, 
all combine to afford limitless possibilities for its 
development." 

Doctor Tesla calls the invention the most revolu- 
tionary of his career, and it certainly will be if it 
fulfils the predictions that so many eminent experts 
are making for it. 

It is interesting to think that although this latest 
and most modern of all steam engines is a turbine, 
the first steam engine ever invented, also was a 
turbine. 

Though most of us usually think of James Watt 
as the inventor of the steam engine, he was not the 
first by any means, for the very first of which history 
gives us any record was a turbine, which was de- 
scribed by Hero of Alexandria, an ancient Egyptian 
scientist, who wrote about 100 B.C. 

Hero's engine was a hollow sphere which was made 
to turn by the reaction of steam as it escaped from 
the ends of pipes, so placed that they would blow 
directly upon the ball. 

Centuries later — in 1629, about the time the New 
England States were being colonized — a scientist 
named Branca made use of the oldest mechanical 
principle in the world — the paddle-wheel — which, 



THE TESLA TURBINE 283 

turned by the never-ceasing river, goes on forever 
in the service of mankind. Branca's invention was 
simply a paddle-wheel turned by a jet of steam in- 
stead of by a water current. The engine was really 
a turbine, for that type is simply a very high develop- 
ment of this idea — the pushing power of a fluid 
on a paddle-wheel. 

The picture of Branca's crude machine shows the 
head and shoulders of a great bronze man suspended 
over a blazing wood fire. Evidently it is intended 
to convey the idea that the figure's lungs are filled 
with boiling water, for he is pictured breathing a 
jet of steam on to the blades of a paddle-wheel, the 
revolving of which sets some crude machinery in 
motion. 

After Branca, however, the turbine dropped from 
view and what few inventors did experiment with 
steam worked on the idea of a reciprocating engine. 
The principle of the reciprocating engine, as 
most boys know from their own experiments with toy 
steam engines, and as was discovered by Watt, is 
simply the utilization of the power of steam for ex- 
panding with great force when let into first one side, 
and then the other side of the cylinder. Thus, as 
the steam expands, it pushes the piston back and 
forth at a high rate of speed, transmitting motion 
to shafts and flywheels. 

In 1888 the world was ready for a bigger and more 
powerful type of steam engine; and C. A. Parsons, an 



284 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

Englishman, and Dr. G. de Laval of Stockholm, 
brought forth successful turbines at about the same 
time. 

The machines were developed to a high state of 
efficiency, and are still in general use, although most 
turbines for driving heavy electrical machinery in 
the United States are the great Curtiss engines, which 
are a combination of the principles of both the De 
Laval and Parsons machines. All of them are run 
by the old principle of the water-wheel. In- 
stead of the steam being turned into a cylinder to 
push the piston, it is turned into a steel drum or 
casing in which wheels or disks are mounted on the 
central shaft. All along the edge of these wheels 
are hundreds of little vanes or blades or buckets 
against which the steam flows from many nozzles 
placed all around the inside of the casing. The steam 
flows with great force, and naturally pushing against 
the blades, starts the wheels and the engine shaft to 
revolving. After expending its force on the blades 
that turn the steam passes on to a set of stationary 
blades which then shoot it out against the next set 
of moving blades. 

In the Curtiss turbine the wheels at one end of 
the shaft are smaller than those at the other, and the 
steam enters at the small end, where it is under heavy 
pressure. After having expended its force on the 
blades of the first wheel, the steam passes through 
holes in a partition at the side and zigzags back so 



THE TESLA TURBINE 



285 



that it strikes the vanes or blades on the next larger 
disk. It then repeats the process, expands a little, 
and goes to a larger disk. Finally, by the time the 
steam has expanded to its full capacity, the greater 
part of its force has been expended against the disks 
of the turbine. 



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THE CURTISS TURBINE 

Diagram of Steam Diaphragm Showing Nozzles and Fixed and Moving Blades 

A — Single stage turbine wheel. B — Steam nozzles. 
B' — Steam exhausts. C — Moving blades. D — Stationary blades. 

From this we see the main points of difference 
between reciprocating engines and turbines, and 
between most turbines and Tesla's invention. 

While most turbines take advantage of the ex- 
pansive power of steam, the main idea is to make use 



286 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

of the velocity of the vapour as it is driven from a 
set of nozzles around the turbine wheel, under high 
pressure. 

Also it will be seen that Tesla's invention is a 
turbine in form, but that it is entirely different from 
either of the two earlier types, because instead of 
giving the steam something to push against, it is 
allowed to follow its own natural course around 
between the smooth disks, and drag them after it. 

Some kind of a crank motion is necessary in all 
reciprocating engines, to convert the backward and 
forward movement of the piston to the rotary motion 
of the shaft, but this is done away with entirely in 
the turbine. What engineers call a "direct drive" 
is substituted in its place. In other words, the tur- 
bine wheels or disks, fastened to the shaft, turn it, and 
drive the machinery directly from the source of power. 
The speed of the machine is regulated by gears. 

The great advantage of the "direct drive," partic- 
ularly for big steamships and for turning big electric 
dynamos, will be plain to every boy when he thinks 
of the long narrow body of a ship in which can lie the 
turbine engines working directly on the propeller 
shafts (with the exception of certain gears, of course, 
for regulating the speed) instead of the big flywheels, 
and flying cranks of marine reciprocating engines. 
Also with dynamos it is just as important to have 
the powder applied directly to save space and increase 
the general efficiency of the machine. 



THE TESLA TURBINE 287 

The greatest disadvantage of the usual kinds of 
turbines for most machinery, including steamships, 
is the fact that they cannot be reversed. To solve 
this difficulty, all the great ocean and coast liners, 
battleships, cruisers, and torpedo boats that are 
equipped with turbines have two sets of engines, one 
for straight ahead and one for backward. 

With the Tesla turbine this disadvantage, as we 
have seen, is entirely done away with, and the one 
turbine can be reversed as easily and simply as it 
can be started. 

And so, while we are waiting for the world-moving 
wireless transmission of power and for the comple- 
tion of Tesla's invention for safe and stable airships, 
we can look for the speedy development of his turbine 
in practically all departments of mechanical engi- 
neering. 



CHAPTER IX 
THE ROMANCE OF CONCRETE 

THE ONE-PIECE HOUSE OF THOMAS A. EDISON, AND 
OTHER USES OF THE NEWEST AND YET THE OLDEST 
BUILDING MATEMAL OF CIVILIZED PEOPLES SEEN 
BY THE BOY AND HIS SCIENTIFIC FRIEND 

WHILE we are looking around at all these 
epoch-making inventions let us follow our 
friendly scientist and his boy companion to 
one of the big cement shows held in the various large 
cities of the United States every year, for a glance at 
some of the uses of reinforced concrete in modern engi- 
neering and building. For the boy who intends to 
become a civil engineer this wonderful material will 
have an especial interest, because its successful use 
in all of the greatest engineering works going on 
to-day has brought it to the front as the modern 
substitute, in a great many cases, for wood, brick, or 
expensive stone and steel structures. 

On entering the cement show our friends saw on 
every side long rows of booths showing models of 
structures and articles that could be made of concrete 
There were models of houses, subways, dams, bridges 

288 



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THE ROMANCE OF CONCRETE 289 

dock works, retaining walls, sewers, bridges, pave- 
ments and even boats and furniture. In fact, so 
the men in the exhibition booths said, concrete can 
be used for practically every bui ding purpose where 
strength, lasting qualities, and resistance to heat and 
cold are needed. "This is the concrete age," they 
declared. "Concrete is fireproof, waterproof, sani- 
tary, and resists frost when properly used. Our 
timber supply is decreasing, the supply of iron ore 
for structural steel is limited, and stone is expensive; 
so concrete, reinforced with steel, and used by engi- 
neers who understand their business, will be the great- 
est building material of the future." 

These are the things that the enthusiasts at all the 
concrete shows say, but they admit that there are 
certain kinds of construction in which concrete is 
not as effective as steel or granite. Also they say 
that the use of reinforced concrete requires the 
highest type of engineering skill, and a complete 
understanding of the technicalities of the subject. 

One of the places where we know concrete best is 
in pavements and sidewalks, and several of the 
booths exhibited samples of such work. To show- 
its strength the men in charge piled on weights, 
struck the slabs with hammers, or subjected them 
to any kind of hard usage suggested by the crowd. 
Then, too, there were sections of concrete buildings, 
and exhibitions of various systems of reinforced con- 
crete construction. With these there wore concrete 



290 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

chimneys, portable concrete garages, railroad ties, 
and what not. 

"Oh, but look here," broke out the boy as he led 
his older friend about. "Here's a perfect model of 
a house." 

6 Yes," answered the man, "that is a model of the 
famous Edison poured cement, or 'one-piece' house, 
the latest invention of our great American inventor." 

There the little building stood, perfect in every 
way, surrounded by a model concrete wall, a beauti- 
ful lawn, and approached by fine concrete walks and 
driveways. 

"This model," explained the scientist, "represents 
what Thomas A. Edison is trying to get time to 
accomplish for workingmen and their families. In- 
stead of being built piece by piece, the house is sup- 
posed to be made all at one time by pouring the 
concrete into a complete set of moulds. This house 
is so interesting that we shall look at it much closer 
a little later on. 55 

"And here," said the boy; "what's this?" 

He had paused before a perfect model of the 
Gatun locks of the Panama Canal, where the world's 
greatest work in concrete, or any other kind of 
masonry, is being carried on. The work is greater 
than the Pyramids of Egypt or the Great Wall of 
China. Though we will not bother ourselves much 
with figures, it will give an idea of the size of the job on 
the canal when we realize that it will require 8,000,000 



THE ROMANCE OF CONCRETE 291 

cubic yards of concrete, and more then 900,000 tons 
of Portland cement. 

In all there will be six great locks for the trans- 
portation of our ships from the Atlantic to the Pacific 
and back. Three of these locks are at Gatun on the 
Atlantic side of the canal, one at Pedro Miguel, and 
two at Miraflores. Each lock will be 1,000 feet long, 
110 feet wide, and 45 feet deep — and practically all 
of this is done with concrete. So massive is most of 
the work that steel reinforcement is only necessary in 
certain parts of the project. The problem of sinking 
the great retaining walls to bedrock, and making them 
strong enough to hold in the face of the tremendous 
floods of the Chagres River, alone makes one of the 
most stupendous engineering works ever under- 
taken by man. Were it not for the use of concrete 
the cost of the work would be so great as to make 
it almost impossible of accomplishment. 

The model of the Gatun locks showed the boy 
everything, just as it will be when the canal is opened 
for traffic in 1913. There was the wide Gatun lake, 
surrounded by the tropical forests, the great Gatun 
dam, and the series of locks in one solid mass of con- 
crete. These locks when completed will be 3,800 
feet long, and their tremendous height and thickness 
can be seen from the pictures of the work as it is 
actually being carried on. In the model there were 
perfect little ships on the lake and going through the 
locks. 



292 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

Besides the many present day uses of cement 
some of the concrete enthusiasts are suggesting 
that heavily reinforced concrete be used in place 
of steel in making bank vaults, as they declare 
that the material will resist the keen tools and the 
powerful explosives of bank robbers even more suc- 
cessfully than the hardest steel. 

Then too, at the cement show, the boy saw, 
besides models of big works and examples of all 
kinds of concrete construction, exhibits of the va- 
rious methods of placing steel bars and steel net 
work in the cement to make it stronger, and the 
different machines used in mixing concrete and in 
making Portland cement, which is the binding 
element in concrete. 

As concrete is a material that can be mixed by an 
amateur and used for a great many purposes, the 
booths where mixing and simple uses were demon- 
strated attracted a great deal of attention. For 
instance, in the last few years the farmers have found 
out that they can make watering troughs, drains, 
floors for stables, hen houses, and even fence posts, 
of concrete just as easily as they can of wood or 
iron. Moreover, the articles thus made will last 
practically forever. All that is needed is a supply 
of Portland cement, and a little careful study as to 
the best way of mixing it with the proper amounts 
of sand and gravel. The amateur has best results 
if he starts modestly and takes up the use of re- 



THE ROMANCE OF CONCRETE 293 

inforced concrete after learning how to use the 
material in its simple form. 

One of the most interesting uses of reinforced 
concrete for the amateur who has learned something 
of the craft is in making a good, seaworthy rowboat, 
or even a small motor boat. Poured boats are strong, 
graceful, and durable. If they are properly made 
there never is any danger of their leaking, and by 
a little extra pains it is possible to make them with 
air-tight compartments so that they are non-sinkable. 

The usual method of making concrete boats is 
very simple. The kind of boat to be duplicated is 
borrowed and hung on the shore so that it swings free 
of the ground. Then a mould of clay is built all 
around it. A strong bank of sand is heaped around 
the clay, to hold it firm. Then the boat is worked 
a little each way so that a space of about an inch 
and a half is left all around between the outside of 
the boat and the clay. The space between the boat 
and the clay is the space into which the concrete is 
poured for sides and bottom after the reinforcing 
rods have been properly inserted. After the whole 
thing has stood a day or so the inside boat is taken 
out and the clay mould broken down, revealing a 
complete concrete hull. 

Thus, we see that concrete can be used as a build- 
ing material in practically any kind of construction, 
that it is easily handled since all that is necessary 
is to pour it into the moulds after the engineers have 



294 THE BOY'S BOOK OP NEW INVENTIONS 

properly placed the reinforcement, and that it can 
be cast in practically any decorative design just as 
easily as plain. Add to this the fact that concrete 
is cheaper than stone or steel, and that it is practi- 
cally indestructible when properly handled, and it is 
easy to see the reason for call ng this the cement age, 
and concrete the building material of the future. 

After the Panama Canal, the greatest engineering 
feat in which concrete figures as one of the chief 
materials used, is the Catskill aqueduct, by which 
water from four watersheds in the Catskill Mountains 
of New York State is to be piped to all five boroughs 
of New York City. The Ashokan reservoir, near 
Kensington, N. Y., was the first part of the work to 
be taken up, together with the Kensico storage 
reservoir twenty-five miles from New York, several 
smaller reservoirs, and the aqueducts to carry this 
water from the mountains to every home in greater 
New York. The dam and containing walls of the 
Ashokan reservoir are all made of reinforced concrete, 
and the size of the lake and the strength of the walls 
can be appreciated when one thinks that the 130,- 
000,000,000 gallons of water it holds in check would 
cover all Manhattan Island with twenty-eight feet 
of water. A large part of the aqueduct proper, 
through which this great stream of water is carried 
from the mountains, under the Hudson River, and 
to the city where it runs more than a hundred feet 
below the street level, is made of reinforced concrete. 






THE ROMANCE OF CONCRETE 295 

For other examples of the use of this material in 
big engineering works a boy has only to look around 
him. There are the tunnels under the rivers around 
New York, the New York subways, the Philadelphia 
and Boston subways, the Detroit River tunnel, 
bridges, culverts, big piers and other dock works, 
miles of concrete snowsheds along the lines of the 
railroads that cross the continental divide of the 
Rocky Mountains, and in fact practically every 
big structural undertaking. 

Almost anywhere we look these days we see a big 
machine crushing rock, mixing it with sand and 
mortar, and turning out concrete to be shovelled 
into a hole and perhaps used far below the surface 
by "sand hogs" working under compressed air, or 
hoisted to the towering walls of some great office 
building or factory that is being constructed of the 
artificial stone. 

We are familiar with the falsework of a concrete 
building under construction. It is all, apparently, 
a maze of wooden beams that look like scaffoldings, 
and yet they seem to make the outlines of the build- 
ing. This maze of woodwork, seemingly so lacking 
in plan or system, as a matter of fact is a triumph of 
engineering skill, for it is the mould for the building, 
and was all built by the most careful plans as to 
strains, stresses, floor loads, etc. 

First, however, before building the mould for a 
residence, school, theatre, office building, or factory, 



296 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

the engineer decides what strength his foundations 
must have. The foundation for a small residence 
is an easy matter, but when it comes to a big factory, 
or an office building of a dozen stories or so, the most 
careful work must be done beforehand. In the old 
days, when it was desired to sink the foundations of 
a building down to bedrock, they used steel or wooden 
piles, but these will rust or rot, and the modern way 
is to use concrete piles. Either the great poles are 
moulded first and sunk like the ordinary wooden 
ones, or a pipe with a sharpened point is sunk and the 
concrete deposited in it by buckets designed for the 
purpose. Once these piles are driven, they are there 
for all time, if the work is done properly, and the 
engineer can be sure that his building is as good as 
if resting on bedrock. 

From then on the erection of a reinforced concrete 
building is a most intricate matter, because while 
concrete in itself is a very simple substance, its use 
in buildings is a highly developed science. Of 
course there are many different methods of using 
concrete, and each one prescribes a different kind of 
steel network for the reinforcement. Then, too, 
some engineers cast parts of their buildings sepa- 
rately and put them in place after they have set, 
while others run the concrete for beams, floors, and 
walls into moulds, built right where those parts are 
to be in the finished structure. In laying the steel 
reinforcing rods, before the concrete is poured, the 



THE ROMANCE OF CONCRETE 297 

engineer sees that they make a perfect network so 
as to take care of all the strains, just as they will be 
put upon the building when it is completed. It is 
in the proper placing of reinforcement that the great- 
est engineering knowledge is needed in this kind of 
building. 

As the wooden moulds for the first foundation 
beams and girders are completed and the reinforce- 
ment is placed, the concrete is poured in. The sub- 
cellar or cellar floor mould then is laid, the reinforce- 
ment placed and the concrete run in. Next the 
moulds for the cellar walls are built and perhaps the 
moulds for the beams and girders for the first floor. 
The reinforcing rods are placed in these moulds and 
the concrete run in, and so on, a story at a time, or a 
small section at a time, until the structure reaches 
the height called for in the plans, and it stands com- 
pleted. As the building progresses and the concrete 
on the lower floor sets, the moulds can be taken down 
and used on higher stories. Concrete is even used 
for the roofs of buildings, as it can be moulded right 
in place or set up in slabs that can be later 
cemented together. 

When properly used reinforced concrete is abso- 
lutely fireproof, so it is coming into extensive use in 
the construction of schools, theatres, warehouses, 
factories, and all other such buildings where a great 
height is not required. So far, none of the great 
skyscrapers has been built of reinforced concrete, 



298 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

although office buildings of sixteen stories have been 
erected with complete success. 

There is still another method of using concrete as 
a building material. This is in the form of building 
blocks, and doubtless all who read this will recall 
seeing many beautiful residences built of blocks of 
stone that on closer inspection proved to be concrete. 
The blocks can be cast in any size or form and used 
in just the ^ame way as structural stone. 

Now, after having looked about the city and having 
seen the numerous ways that concrete is used as a 
building material, we come back to the very latest 
thing in the use of this man-made stone — the " one- 
piece" or poured house. 

For a good view of it let us take a little jaunt out 
to West Orange, N. J., with the scientist and look 
into the library of Thomas A. Edison's laboratory, 
where we will see a perfect model of this marvel of 
invention. It is practically the same as the one at 
the cement show. Standing in the centre of the 
great room where Edison works is this perfect little 
cottage, about the size of a large doll's house. It 
represents not only Edison's latest invention, but 
also his favourite scheme. In years to come, when 
the boys who read this are grown men, it will prob- 
ably be no novelty to build houses by pouring them 
all at once into a steel mould, but just at present it 
is one of the most startling developments in an age 
of epoch-making inventions. 



THE ROMANCE OF CONCRETE 299 

Every boy knows that Edison has never followed 
the ideas of others in working out his inventions, and 
the poured house is no exception to his rule. It will 
be interesting to take a little look back over a part 
of Edison's life and see how he came to enter the 
cement-making business, and how, when he had his 
process down to a fine point, he said to himself, "It 
is cheap and easy to build a house or an office build- 
ing of concrete in sections, why not build it all in 
one piece?" 

We shall see that no sooner had he asked himself 
this startling question than he began by making 
models, and satisfied himself that it was not only 
possible, but one of the cheapest and best methods 
of making small, simply arranged houses, such as 
could be bought or rented for a small sum/ 

Although Edison has within the last few years 
brought his idea to a state where it can be put to 
practical use, he himself is not trying to push it com- 
mercially, as he has his other great inventions like 
the phonograph, storage battery, and the motion- 
picture machine. In fact, he is content to let it be 
worked out by others just so long as it fulfills his 
idea of giving to workingmen good houses at a low 
price. 

'Years ago, long before Edison had retired from 
active business affairs to give his whole attention 
to scientific research," said the scientist, as he and 
the boy walked about the laboratory, "he became 



300 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

interested in metallurgy, just as he was and always 
is interested in every other science where great difficul- 
ties must be overcome. In those days iron and steel 
were not used as extensively as they are now, but 
the scientists and leaders in the big industries saw 
that the day was coming when far, far greater 
quantities of iron ore would be needed to supply the 
great demand for steel to build skyscrapers, ships, 
machinery, and so on. Men were going farther and 
farther away in their search for iron ore, but Edison, 
with his never failing originality, said to himself that 
it was likely there was plenty of iron ore right around 
his laboratory in New Jersey if he only knew how 
to get at it. 

"For one thing/' continued the boy's friend, 
"Edison had seen on the ocean beaches great 
stretches of white sand with millions and millions of 
little black particles sprinkled through them. He 
knew that the specks were pure iron ore. You can 
prove this to yourself by simply holding a good mag- 
net close to a pile of such sand, and watching the 
iron particles collect." 

It was Edison's idea to concentrate the iron ore 
found in the earth, in just this way, for he had sent 
out a corps of surveyors who had reported vast 
quantities of low-grade ore in most of the Atlantic 
Coast States. Low-grade ore is that which contains 
only a small percentage of the metal desired, and 
hence it does not pay to smelt it, unless a very cheap 



THE ROMANCE OF CONCRETE 301 

process can be found. Edison thought he had a 
process cheap enough, for he simply intended to 
grind the mountains to sand and take out the particles 
of iron by running it through a hopper with a high- 
power magnet at the mouth. 

The process sounds simple, but the machinery 
required was very complicated, to say nothing of 
being extremely heavy. Edison set up his mill in the 
mountains of New Jersey and started to blast down 
the cliffs of low-grade ore and run them through a 
series of gigantic crushers that ground them to a fine 
powder. The iron particles, called concentrates, 
after being extricated were pressed into briquets 
ready for delivery to the foundry. 

After having spent close to $2,000,000 on the 
experiment, and satisfactorily proving its mechanical 
success, the discovery of vast quantities of high-grade 
ore in the Messaba range of Minnesota forced Edison 
to close his plant. "This would have been a crush- 
ing failure to most men," added the scientist, "but 
Edison's only comment was a whimsical smile. In- 
deed, even on his way home after closing his 
plant, Edison was ' planning new and more im- 
portant activities, for with his experience at rock 
crushing he was satisfied he could enter the field 
as a maker of the building material called Portland 
cement. " 

At that time cement and concrete wore even less 
used than were steel and iron, but Edison for many 



302 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

years had seen that in the future they would take 
the place of wood, stone, and brick. 

"Well-made concrete, employing a high grade of 
Portland cement/ 5 said Edison on one occasion, 
"is the most lasting material known. Practical 
confirmation of this statement may be found 
abundantly in Italy at the present time, where 
many concrete structures exist, made of old 
Roman cement, constructed more than a thousand 
years ago, and are still in a good state of preser- 
vation. 

"Concrete will last as long as granite and is far 
more resistant to fire than any known stone." 

But Edison had something more than a successful 
business in mind when he returned from his rock- 
crushing plant, for he intended setting up cement- 
making machinery such as had never before been 
seen. With this end in view he began to read up 
on the subject, just as we have seen the Wright 
brothers read up on aviation. Incidentally, as an 
indication of the manner in which this wizard works, 
it may be said that all this time Edison was perfect- 
ing his new storage battery. 

One big improvement upon the usual process in 
the manufacture of cement, planned by Edison, 
was that the grinding should be so fine that 65 per 
cent, of the ground clinker should pass through a 
200-mesh screen instead of only 75 per cent, as is the 
usual rule. Thus, Edison made into cement 10 per 



THE ROMANCE OF CONCRETE 303 

cent, more material that other manufacturers sent 
back to be ground over again. 

The success of Edison's Portland cement plant is 
not matter for our attention here, so we will pass over 
those busy years to the time of Edison's retirement 
to devote all his time to scientific research. 

For many years he had watched the cities grow, 
had seen the great tenements become more crowded, 
and less comfortable each year. He had seen the 
children playing in the streets, and had compared 
their lives to the happy lives of the children whose 
parents could afford to live away from the great 
cities, where boys could have yards to play in. He 
decided that the boys of the city streets would have 
a far better time, that their mothers and fathers 
would have a far more cheerful life if they could live 
in comfortable little houses in the country with yards, 
and gardens, and plenty of room for every one. 

Edison saw that what was needed was a building 
material cheap enough, and a method of using it 
cheap enough, so that dwellings could be put up at 
a cost that would place them within the means of 
workingmen and their families. 

Concrete, he decided, was the material to solve the 
problem, and Edison set himself to the task of making 
houses poured complete into one mould so as to make 
the cost of labour as low as possible. The " one-piece " 
house was an assured thing from that time on. All 
that remained was for the "Wizard of Orange," as 



304 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

he is called, to work out the difficult details of a prop- 
erly mixed cement and a practical system of moulds. 

An incident that occurred at the time of the failure 
of his ore crushing plant in the New Jersey mountains 
was one of the things that brought the whole situa- 
tion home to him. When the plant was closed and 
the buildings vacated, the fire insurance companies 
cancelled the policies, declaring that the moral risk 
was too great. 

The inventor's reply was short and to the point. 
He made no protest against the cancellation of his 
policies, but simply said he would need no more 
policies, as he would erect fireproof buildings in which 
there would be no " moral risk." 

This promise of Edison's, made at the time of his 
so-called failure and pondered during the years of 
his tremendous activities, was not redeemed until he 
had retired from the business of invention as a means 
of gaining riches. "I am not making these experi- 
ments for money, 55 Edison has said many times. 
"This model represents the character of the house 
which I will construct of concrete. I believe it can 
be built by machinery in lots of 100 or more at 
one location for a price which will be so low that it 
can be purchased or rented by families whose total 
income is not more than $550 per annum. It is an 
attempt to solve the housing question by a practical 
application of science, and the latest advancement ii 
cement and mechanical engineering. 55 



THE ROMANCE OF CONCRETE 305 

Edison's plan, as we have seen before, was simply 
to make a set of moulds in the shape of the house he 
desired to build, run the concrete into them, let them 
stand until the material had settled, and then take 
down the retaining surfaces, exposing to view the 
finished house. 

It was contrary to all the previous ideas in build- 
ing, and was ridiculed by many famous architects. 
Nevertheless, tremendous obstacles are the stuff 
upon which Edison's genius feeds, and he only worked 
the harder to produce a concrete that would be liquid 
enough to fill all the intricate spaces and turns in the 
moulds and yet sufficiently thick to prevent the sand 
or gravel in the concrete from sinking to the bottom. 
Thus, it first had to run like thin mush and then set in 
walls and floors harder than any brick or stone. 
Another of the difficulties to be overcome was to 
discover a concrete that would give perfectly smooth 
walls. 

Although this may sound very simple, it has not 
yet been completely worked out in this country, 
owing to the heavy demands on Edison's time. The 
perfected process, however, will be made known just 
as soon as the inventor can find time to complete 
certain small details that he wants to clear up before 
giving the system to the world. A French syndicate 
working along Edison's ideas for a poured house has 
made some progress and it is reported they have 
constructed two attractive dwellings with con- 



306 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

siderable success. One of these is at Santpoort, 
Holland, and the other near Paris. 

Whether the houses are poured completely in one 
mould, or whether they are built a story at a time on 
different days, this newest form of house building is 
carried on along about the same lines. 

"Let us just suppose/ 5 said the scientist, "that 
we are standing on a building site in some pretty 
suburb of a great city. We will also suppose that an 
Edison poured house is to be erected there. Plans 
are drawn beforehand for a small house of simple 
arrangement and a set of steel moulds in convenient 
sizes are turned out. These moulds all have con- 
nections so they can be set up and joined together 
in one piece. First, we see that a solid concrete cellar 
floor, called the 'footing', has been laid down just 
the size and shape of the house. A crowd of skilled 
workmen quickly set up the moulds on this footing 
and lock them together. The moulds make one 
complete shell of the house, from cellar to roof, just 
as it will appear when completed. Reinforcing rods 
are placed in the mould so that they will be left in 
the concrete walls, floors, etc., of the house after the 
steel shell is taken away. 

"Nearby we see a few more skilled workmen 
mixing the concrete in great vats. When the mould 
and the material are ready we see the concrete taken 
to a tank on the roof and poured into troughs which 
carry the stuff to a number of different holes through 



THE ROMANCE OF CONCRETE 307 

which it flows into the mould. We hear it splash, 
splash, splash as it gradually fills every space in the 
shell, and finally after six hours or so it overflows at 
the roof. The main part of the work is now done 
and we can go away for a few days while the liquid 
in the shell sets, or turns to the hardest kind of stone. 

"After about six days we return to see the moulds 
unlocked, taken down and the complete house 
standing ready with walls, floors, stairways, chimneys, 
bathtubs, stationary tubs in the cellar, electric-wire 
conduits, water, gas and heating pipes all complete. 
In making the moulds the spaces for bathtubs, wash- 
tubs, electric wiring and piping for gas, water, and 
heat, are just as carefully arranged as walls and floors. 
The only work necessary after the concrete has set 
is to put in the doors and windows, install the 
furnace and necessary fixtures for heating, fighting 
and plumbing and connect them up ready for use. 
No plaster is used in these houses, but the walls 
can be tinted or decorated just as the landlord or 
occupant desires." 

The boy's friend went on to say that one might 
think that this was about as far as science could 
carry the use of concrete, but Edison said to himself: 
"If we can make houses, why can't we make furni- 
ture?" and he set about experimenting with poured 
furniture. He obtained some wonderful results 
with this newest use of concrete, and in his Orange 
laboratory he has several cabinets, chairs, and other 



308 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

articles of furniture that are every bit as attractive 
to look at as wooden furniture and that are practi- 
cally indestructible. 

"And my concrete furniture will be cheap, as well 
as strong/' says Edison. "If I couldn't put it out 
cheaper than the oak that comes from Grand Rapids, 
I wouldn't go into the business. If a newly wed 
starts out with, say, $450 worth of furniture on the 
installment plan, I feel confident that we can give 
him more artistic and more durable furniture for 
$200. I'll also be able to put out a whole bedroom 
set for $5 or $6." 

At present the weight of this concrete furniture 
is about one third greater than wooden furniture, 
but Edison is confident he can reduce this excess 
to one quarter. The concrete surface can, of 
course, be stained in imitation of any wood finish. 
The phonograph cabinet shown at the left of Edison 
in the picture opposite page 281 has been trimmed 
in white and gold. Its surface resembles enamelled 
wood. The cabinet at his right is the old style 
wooden type. 

This concrete cabinet easily withstood the hard 
usage of shipment by freight for a long distance. 

Of course, the poured concrete furniture is made in 
just the same way as the houses except that it is 
a much simpler process. It is a very easy matter to 
set up a steel mould for a chair, a cabinet, a dresser, 
or a bedstead, whereas a house, with its tubs, conduits, 



THE WORLD-WIDE USE OF CONCRETE 





1 


It"- > ; ** 




[ 


... ' 




Hi mil" HBmL 



Courtesy of the Atlas Portland Cement Co. 

An eight-story all-concrete office building under construction in Port- 
land, Maine 



**3£Jr#***** H 



?5t* 






J* B # 



J r# 








A perfect little model of the greal Gatun Locks of t lu- Panama Canal 





THE CATSKILL AQUEDUCT, ONE OF THE WORLD'S GREAT- 
EST CONCRETE WORKS 

Laying a level section of the great concrete tunnel through which 
New York City is to get its drinking water 




THE AQUEDUCT DEEP UNDER GROUND 

A partially completed section showing the concrete work. Note the 
size of the tunnel 



THE ROMANCE OF CONCRETE 309 

stairways, hallways, doorways, window frames, 
plumbing system, etc., is a most complex matter, 
requiring a set of moulds that could be put together 
properly by only a man who combined the highest 
abilities of an architect, a builder, an engineer, and 
a mechanic. Although concrete has been used for 
many years in making garden furniture, Edison's 
plan for making finished indoor pieces with it is 
entirely new. 

But to return to the houses; Edison says it is 
just as easy to make poured dwellings in decorative 
designs as in plain ones. It is only necessary to have 
the moulds cast in the desired shape. It is his 
idea to have all the poured houses pretty as well as 
perfectly sanitary and substantial. He intends that 
there shall be many different kinds of moulds, and also 
that each set of moulds shall be so cast that it can 
be joined in different ways, in order to give the houses 
a variety of appearance. Thus, in a small town 
where a large number of poured houses were set up, 
there would be no two exactly alike if the owners 
preferred to have them different. 

According to the plans Edison now has on foot, the 
first complete poured houses will have on the main 
floor two rooms, the living room and dining room, 
while on the second floor there will be four rooms, 
a bathroom and hallway. Of course as the main idea 
is to give perfectly sanitary and comfortable houses, 
there will be plenty of windows, for lots of fresh air 



310 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

and sunlight. Edison figures that he can build a 
house of poured concrete for $1,200 that would cost 
$30,000 if built of cut stone. Furthermore, he 
figures that the rent ought to be about $10 per 
month, as he will only license reputable concerns to 
use his patents, and his licenses will stipulate the 
approximate rent that can be charged. 

Thus, the high cost of living about which we all 
hear so much at the family dinner table as well as 
everywhere else is being attacked by science and 
invention through a new channel, and Edison's 
latest invention can be expected soon to give good 
homes at low rents to thousands of families now pay- 
ing exorbitant prices for dark stuffy city flats. 

It was significant that at the celebration of Edi- 
son's sixty-fifth birthday, February 10, 1912, the 
great American inventor should sit at the head of the 
table surrounded by his family and associates facing 
a perfect model of one of his poured cement houses. 
The chair in which he sat, to all appearances was 
beautiful mahogany, but in reality was cast in a 
mould of Edison concrete at the Edison plant. At 
the place of each guest was a bronze paperweight, ap- 
propriately engraved, w T ith Edison's favourite motto: 

"All things come to him who hustles while he 
waits." 

HISTORY OF CONCRETE 

Although concrete is in truth the newest building 
material in our time, it is the oldest known to civili- 



THE ROMANCE OF CONCRETE 311 

zation because it was the stuff with which the eternal 
buildings of ancient Rome were constructed. Even 
before the Romans used concrete it was used by the 
Eygptians, more than 4,000 years ago. Every boy 
will remember from his history classes that the 
Egyptians, so far as we can learn, were the first 
people in the history of the world to reach a high state 
of civilization. Every boy also will remember that 
the only way we know this is through the evidence 
of ruins of tombs and buildings. Many of these 
buildings were made of a material very much like 
concrete that must have been made in some such 
manner as concrete is made nowadays. 

About 2,000 years later, long after the Egyptian 
civilization had died, the men of Carthage discovered 
concrete for themselves and built a marvellous 
aqueduct 70 miles long, through which water was 
brought to their city. It was carried across a great 
valley over about 1,000 arches, many of which are 
still standing in good condition. 

To the Romans, however, we are indebted for 
some of the best examples of ancient concrete work. 
They used this material in their wonderful city for 
buildings, bridges, sewers, aqueducts, water mains, 
and in fact in a great many of the ways that we have 
seen it is used to-day. The great Coliseum and the 
Pantheon at Rome are relics of the skill of the 
ancient architects in the use of concrete. 

Although many historians think thai the secret 



312 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

of making cementious building material was lost 
from the fall of Rome until the middle of the eigh- 
teenth century, there are ruins of ancient castles 
which stood in mediaeval times in Europe which 
indicate at least some use of concrete. 

The real discoverer of natural cement in our 
modern times though, was John Smeaton, who will 
be remembered by the readers of "The Boy's Second 
Book of Inventions" as the man who built the first 
rock lighthouse at Eddystone, England, in 1756. In 
his great work he discovered a kind of limestone with 
which he could make a cement that would set, or 
harden, under water. His discovery was hailed as 
the recovery of the secret of the ancient Romans of 
making hydraulic cement. It was so called because 
it would harden under water. 

In 1796, Joseph Parker, another Englishman, made 
what he called Roman cement. Several others fol- 
lowed, and in 1818 natural cement was first made in 
the United States by Canvass White near Fayette- 
ville, N. Y. The material was made from natural 
rock and was used in the construction of the Erie 
Canal. 

All of these early cements are called natural ce- 
ments by engineers nowadays, because they were 
made from natural rock. It was only necessary to find 
a clayey limestone which contained a certain percent- 
age of iron oxide and two other minerals known as silica 
and alumina. The limestone was crushed to a conven- 



THE ROMANCE OF CONCRETE 313 

ient size and was burned in a kiln. The heat turned 
the stuff into cinders which, when ground to a fine pow- 
der and mixed with water, would make a cement that 
would harden under either air or water very quickly, 
and last for practically all time. Just for the sake of 
those who have studied chemistry we will say that 
in this process the heat drives off the carbon dioxide 
in the limestone, and the lime, combining with the 
silica alumina and iron oxide, forms a mass contain- 
ing mineral properties called silicates, aluminates, and 
ferrites of lime. These properties mixed with the 
water make natural cement. In the United States, 
natural cement was called Rosendale cement, because 
it was first made commercially in a town of New 
York State by that name. 

The supply of natural cement, however, is limited, 
because the proper kind of limestone is only found 
in a few places. Consequently, when an artificial 
mortar called Portland cement was invented in 1824, 
the world took a step forward that could not be 
measured in those days. 

Most authorities give the credit for the invention 
to Joseph Aspdin, a bricklayer of Leeds, England. 
He took out a patent on the material and in 1825 
set up a large factory. In 1828 Portland cement was 
used in the Thames tunnel, making the first time that 
the material figured in any big engineering work. In 
those days even the most enthusiastic supporters of 
cement little dreamed that in this modern age it 



314 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

would be the material that would make possible such 
tremendous victories over the obstacles of nature as 
the Panama Canal, the tunnels under the rivers 
that surround New York and the great dams that 
hold back the waters all over the country. 

Aspdin, however, is not given the credit for the 
invention of Portland cement by all authorities, as 
some claim that Isaac Johnson, also an Englishman, 
who early in 1912 died at the age of 104, was really 
the first man to invent a practical, commercial, arti- 
ficial cement. 

The advantage in Portland cement is that it can 
be made of a number of different kinds of earth, to be 
found in many different parts of the world, and makes 
a far stronger rock. It sets more slowly than natural 
or hydraulic cement, but is more satisfactory for use 
in reinforced concrete work. In the Lehigh Valley, 
where about two thirds of the Portland cement used 
in the United States is made, the raw material is a 
rock, called cement rock, and limestone. In New 
York State they make Portland cement of limestone 
and clay; in the Middle West they make it of 
marl and clay, while in other Western States they 
make it of chalk and clay. In Europe slag is some- 
times used. The artificial product contains lime 
oxide, silica, alumina, iron oxide, and other minerals 
in varying quantities, but the necessary ones are 
silica, alumina, and lime. In making Portland 
cement the raw material is ground into a fine 



THE ROMANCE OF CONCRETE 315 

powder and poured into one end of a long cylin- 
drical kiln which looks like a smokestack lying on 
its side. Powdered coal is shot into the kiln, 
where it is kept burning, at a heat of about 
2,500 to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit. After the raw 
material has been burned thoroughly and is taken 
from the kiln it looks like little cinders or clinkers 
about the size of marbles. The cement clinker is 
then cooled and ground to a powder, after which it is 
stored away for a little while to season. 

The first Portland cement ever made in the United 
States was turned out by David O. Saylor, of Coplay, 
Pa., in 1875, but the development of the new industry 
was very slow, as builders and engineers seemed to be 
blind to the great possibilities of the material that 
built Imperial Rome. In 1890, nearly twenty years 
after the process was introduced in America, only 
335,500 barrels of Portland cement were manu- 
factured in this country. The country woke up to 
the situation a few years later, and in 1905 there were 
manufactured in the United States 35,246,812 barrels 
of Portland cement. In 191 1 the industry turned ou I 
the stupendous total of 77,877,236 barrels. 

This was because the age of concrete had dawned 
on the world and man had learned in those years 
that by mixing gravel and sand with cement he could 
make a material cheaper, more easily handled, and 
far more lasting than wood, brick or some stone. 

As Edison once said to some of his associates: 



316 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

"I think the age of concrete has started, and I 
believe I can prove that the most beautiful houses 
that our architects can conceive can be cast in one 
operation in iron forms at a cost, which, by compari- 
son with present methods, will be surprising. Then 
even the poorest man among us will be enabled to 
own a home of his own — a home that will last for 
centuries with no cost for insurance or repairs, and 
be as exchangeable for other property as a United 
States bond." 

The technical definition of concrete is as follows: 
"Concrete is a species of artificial stone formed by 
mixing cement mortar with broken stone or gravel. 
Cement is the active element called the matrix and 
the sand and stone forms the body of the mixture 
called the aggregate" 

The ingredients are mixed in different proportions 
for different work. A common proportion is 1 part 
cement, 2 parts sand, and 5 parts broken stone or 
gravel. Cement users speak of this as a "1: 2: 5 
mixture." Sometimes the gravel is left out and a 
mixture of 1 part cement to 3 or 4 parts sand is 
made. The cement binds the mass together and 
sand fills up any little vacant spaces about the gravel, 
making what is called a dense mixture. 

From the use of concrete it was only a short step 
to reinforced concrete, or, concrete braced on the 
inside with iron or steel rods. It is sometimes called 
concrete steel, ferro-concrete, and armoured concrete. 





THE SILENT KNIGHT MOTOB 

Two views of the latest automobile engine. At the top can be teen 
the sliding sleeves, the inlets and outlets which do awaj *ith valves 




A PORTABLE ARMY WIRELESS OUTFIT 

The Signal Service is rapidly increasing its wireless equipment for use 

on land 




THE WIRELESS IN THE NAVY 
Practically all of Uncle Sam's warships and Navy Yards now are 
equipped with wireless, and a regular navy wireless operators' school is 
maintained at the Brooklyn Navy Yard 



THE ROMANCE OF CONCRETE 317 

If we asked an engineer the idea in using reinforced 
concrete he might say to us that the steel when 
imbedded, united so closely with the concrete as to 
form one single mass of very great strength. Steel 
rods add to the tensile strength of concrete which 
alone has a tremendous strength under compression. 
In other words, steel does not break nor stretch 
easily; that is, it has great tensile strength. Concrete 
has great strength under compression; that is, it will 
hold up an enormous weight without crushing. Thus, 
a concrete beam alone might crack on the bottom, 
because it has not as great tensile strength as steel. 
But, if we put steel rods into a concrete mould, an 
inch or so from the bottom, turn out a reinforced 
concrete beam, for instance, and place it in the build- 
ing, with the reinforcement at the bottom, we use 
a beam in which the strength of the concrete and iron 
is combined. Thus, when a great weight is placed 
on the top of the beam the concrete resists the com- 
pression of the weight, and the reinforcement at the 
bottom, by its tensile strength, prevents the beam 
from cracking where the strain of the weight is 
greatest. 

That is what the engineer might tell us is the theory 
of reinforced concrete, and the practice requires the 
highest engineering skill and technical knowledge, 
but in the simplest terms, it is concrete, braced by an 
imbedded skeleton of steel. In actual practice 
the reinforcing rods run both ways, or diagonally. 



318 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

just as the engineers decide it is necessary to resist 
the particular kind of stress that the wall or beam 
must withstand. 

Reinforced concrete was first used, so far as 
known, by M. Lambot, who exhibited a small 
rowboat made of that material at the World's 
Fair in Paris, in 1855. The sides and bottom of the 
boat were 1| inches thick, with reinforcement of 
steel wires. The boat is still in use at Merval, 
France. F. Joseph Monier, however, is called the 
"father of reinforced concrete/ 5 as he took out the 
first patent on it in France in 1865. Monier was a 
gardener and had experimented with large urns for 
flowers and shrubs. He wanted to make his pots 
lighter but just as strong, so he tried making some of 
concrete with a wire netting imbedded in the material. 
But even then the world did not realize that his 
accomplishment was more important to mankind 
than a great many of the wars that had been fought, 
and little was done with concrete as a building ma- 
terial until the Germans developed it. 

Reinforced concrete was not used in the United 
States, according to the best records, until 1875, 
when W. E. Ward, without having studied the sub- 
ject very carefully, built himself a house of it, in 
Port Chester, N. Y. He made the whole thing, 
including foundation, outside walls, cornices, towers, 
and roof of reinforced concrete, placing the steel rods 
where his own good judgment told him they would 



THE ROMANCE OF CONCRETE 319 

do the most good. About this time the Ransome 
Cement Company began to use the material for 
building, and put up a great many strong and 
beautiful structures, still to be seen in California and 
elsewhere. 

Finally, bit by bit, in the face of opposition of all 
kinds, reinforced concrete came to be recognized by 
architects, engineers, and builders as one of the best 
materials for certain kinds of work. To-day we 
find that most of the predictions of the early en- 
thusiasts have been fulfilled and that the age of 
concrete has dawned. That it will be used even 
more extensively in the future, as men learn more and 
more about this wonderful artificial stone, is certain. 



CHAPTER X 
THE LATEST AUTOMOBILE ENGINE 

OUR BOY FRIEND AND THE SCIENTIST LOOK OVER THE 
FIELD OF GASOLINE ENGINES AND SEE SOME BIG 
IMPROVEMENTS OVER THOSE OF A FEW YEARS AGO 

WHILE we are following the conversations 
of the scientist and his young friend about 
new inventions, we must not overlook some 
of their most interesting times in keeping abreast of 
the vast improvements that are being made every 
year — almost every day — in the inventions of a 
dozen years ago. 

For instance, there is the gas engine. Ten years 
ago it was a very imperfect machine, as every boy 
who has heard the old jokes about "auto-go-but 
doesn't/' "get a horse/' etc., will remember. 

Then there is the wireless telegraph. No invention 
of recent years has shown a more remarkable develop- 
ment than that of Guglielmo Marconi for sending 
messages without wires. 

But these are only a few of the things that the 
two friends talked about. They looked into the 
wondeiful advancement in the art of photography 

320 



THE LATEST AUTOMOBILE ENGINE 321 

about which every boy knows something, and they in- 
vestigated the latest achievements of science in 
electric lighting. Ten years is a very short time, 
even in this fast moving age of ours, and we shall 
see that many inventions made years ago are still 
being worked upon by the original inventors and 
others. 

First, let us see a few of the ways the gas engine 
has been improved, for we are all more or less familiar 
with it in automobiles, motor boats, or the hundred 
and one other places that it has become an invaluable 
aid to man in carrying on the world's work. 

Our young friend brought up the subject one day 
when he asked the scientist for a few pointers on 
getting better results with his motor-boat engine. 

"We will look it over together/' said the man. 
"Of course you know that every gasoline engine has 
its own peculiarities, and crankinesses, so it's hard 
to tell just what's the matter with one until you see 
it. I don't know very much about them; I wish I 
knew more, but I have been talking with my auto- 
mobile friends a good deal lately about the new motor 
invented by Charles Y. Knight." 

"Oh, I know," replied the boy, "it is called the 
'Silent Knight' motor because it doesn't make any 
noise, and it is used on a great many high-priced 
automobiles." 

"That's it. If you like we will go and have one 
of these engines explained to us. At any rate the 



322 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

automobile man can tell you more about your motor- 
boat engine than I can." 

The expedition was made shortly after the con- 
versation. "You understand, of course," said the 
scientist on the way, "that the Knight motor rep- 
resents only one of the many, many improvements 
in the gas engine, but it is what we call a fundamental 
improvement, as it is a development in the main 
idea of the gasoline motor, rather than merely an 
improvement of one of the parts. Most of the 
evolution of gas engines has consisted merely of the 
improvement and perfection of the various parts for 
more power, and more all around efficiency. 

"You remember what you found out about gaso- 
line motors in general when we were spending so 
much time talking about aeroplanes. The high- 
speed motor, as we know it now, was invented, you 
know, by Gottlieb Daimler, a German inventor, in 
1885, and with the ordinary four-cycle engine it 
takes four trips, or two round trips of the piston 
rod, to exert one push on the crankshaft of the engine. 
In other words, the explosion drives down the piston 
giving the power, and on its return trip the piston 
forces out the burned fumes. On the next down- 
ward stroke the fresh vapour is sucked into the 
cylinder and on the fourth trip, or second upward 
trip, the gas is compressed for the explosion. The 
carbureter on your motor-boat engine, and all others, 
as you know, is the device that mixes the gasoline 



THE LATEST AUTOMOBILE ENGINE 323 

with air and converts it into a highly explosive 
gas, and the sparking system is the electrical device 
that ignites the gas in the cylinders for each explosion 
which makes the 'pop, pop, pop' so familiar with all 
gasoline engines. 

"In the old gas engines the ignition was derived 
from a few dry-cell batteries and some sort of a trans- 
former coil, whereas nowadays the magneto takes care 
of this work. As you know there are many kinds 
of magnetos, and inventors have spent years work- 
ing out better and better ones. Also, in the old 
style motors the carbureter was more or less of a 
makeshift, with a drip feed arrangement, and a hand 
regulating shutter for admitting the air. Now a 
special automatic device regulates this, so that it is 
no longer a toss up whether the gas is mixed in the 
proper quantities or not. Then, too, the oiling 
systems have been improved, so that the function 
is done automatically. In short, the motor has been 
made a perfectly reliable servant instead of a very 
capricious plaything. 

"All these improvements made no fundamental 
change in the valves through which the gas was ad- 
mitted to the cylinders, and the exhausted vapours 
expelled — and from your own experience you know 
that you are just about as apt to have trouble with 
your valves as with any other part of your machine. 

"It is in these valves that the Knight motor 
departs from the usual style, and by this it eliminates 



324 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

the well-known 'pop, pop, pop 5 by which gas engines 
have been known all over the world/' 

As they looked over the engine, an expert in gaso- 
line motors explained all the parts of the "Silent 
Knight" and showed the scientist and his boy friend 
just how the machine worked. 

He said that the only big difference between the 
Knight motor and other standard makes of engines 
is that the Knight substitutes for the intake and ex- 
haust valves an entirely new device composed of 
two cylinders, one within the other, sliding upon 
each other so as to regulate the flow of gas and the 
exhaust of fumes. 

Early in his career as an inventor, while living in 
his home city of Chicago, Knight decided that gaso- 
line engines had entirely too many parts — that they 
were too complicated — and he set about trying 
to simplify them. For one thing, he made a careful 
study of valves, and collected a specimen of every 
kind known to mechanics. The sliding locomotive 
valve seemed to him to hold the greatest possibili- 
ties for his work, and he began a seHes of experiments 
with sliding valves until he finally brought out his 
first engine in 1902. 

Strange as it may seem, Knight's work w^as not rec- 
ognized in his own country until after he had gone 
to Europe, where his engine was taken up by some of 
the biggest automobile manufacturers of England, 
France, Germany, Belgium, and Italy. After that 



THE LATEST AUTOMOBILE ENGINE 325 

it was taken up in the United States, and only now 
is coming to be generally known. The inventor now 
lives in England, where he was first successful, and 
he is still at work on improvements of his engine. 

The motor expert went on to explain that the ad- 
vantage of the Knight motor lay in the fact that the 
two sleeves or cylinders, which go to make up the 
combustion chamber or engine cylinder, sliding 
up and down upon one another, give a silent, vibra- 
tionless movement, as against the noisy action of the 
old style poppet or spring valve motors. 

"But," interrupted the boy, "there are lots of 
other engines that run without making a noise nowa- 
days." 

"That is true," the man answered, "but most of 
them run quietly only when at low speed, or station- 
ary. When they begin to hit the high places the 
noise of the poppet valves is very noticeable. A few 
years ago, when most engine builders were satisfied 
to make motors that would run, regardless of noise, 
they paid no attention to some of the finer mechani- 
cal problems, but since they have become more 
skilful, they are cutting down on the noise. But, 
as I say, the explosions are plainly heard when these 
engines are running at high speed. With the k Sileni 
Knight' the only noise is that of the fan and magneto, 
whether at low speed or the very fastest the motor 
can run. There can be no noise, for there is nothing 
for the sleeves to strike against." 



326 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

The expert then went on to explain the motor in 
detail. The combustion chambers of the four or 
six-cylinder "Silent Knight/' he explained, are made 
up of two concentric cylinders or sleeves, or, in other 
words, one cylinder within another. There is only 
the smallest fraction of an inch between them, and 
as they are well oiled by an automatic lubricating 
device they slide up and down upon each other with 
perfect ease. Of course the sleeves, which are made 
of Swedish iron, a very fine material for cylinder 
construction, are machined down inside and out so 
that they are perfectly smooth to run upon each 
other. 

The two sleeves which go to make up one cylinder 
work up and down upon each other by means of a 
small connecting rod affixed to the bottom of each 
sleeve connected to an eccentric rod, which is driven 
by a noiseless chain from the engine shaft. 

The most important features are the slots cut in 
each side, and close to the upper end of each sleeve, 
so that, as the sleeves move upon one another the 
slot in the right-hand side of the inner one will pass 
the slot of the right-hand side of the outer sleeve, and 
also the same with the left-hand side. 

Then when the left-hand slots of the outer sleeve 
open upon, or come into register with the left-hand 
slots of the inner sleeve, a passage into the cylinder 
is opened for the new gas to enter. When a charge 
of gas has been drawn into the cylinder, one sleeve 



THE LATEST AUTOMOBILE ENGINE 327 

rises while the other falls, so that the openings are 
separated and the passage is tightly closed. The 
compression stroke then begins with the piston 
rising to the top. At this juncture the igniting spark 
explodes the compressed gas and the downward or 
power stroke takes place. During the upward com- 
pression stroke and the downward impulse stroke the 
slots have been closed, allowing no opportunity for 
the gas to escape. When the explosion has taken 
place and the piston has been driven to the bottom 
of its stroke, the right-hand openings in the inner 
sleeve and those of the outer sleeve come together, 
providing a passage for the exhausted gases to 
escape with the fourth or exhaust stroke. Thus 
it is plain that the motor is of the four-cycle type 
and it should not be confounded with two-cycle 
motors. 

As the expert explained the motion he showed how 
it was carried out on an engine from which the casing 
had been partly removed. The careful mechanical 
adjustment of the eccentric shaft, which operated the 
connecting rods that pull the sleeves of the cylinder 
up and down so that the openings for the entrance 
of the fresh gas and the expulsion of the exploded 
fumes come together at just the proper second, was 
what took the boy's eye. 

In connection with this the scientist handed the 
boy a magazine to read. It was a copy of the Motor 
Age in which an expert said editorially: 



328 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

"Those who pin their faith to the slide-valve motor 
do so for many reasons, chief of which is that with 
this motor there is a definite opening and closing of 
the intake and exhaust parts, no matter at what 
motor speeds the car be operating. Two years ago 
one of the leading American engineers experimented 
with poppet valves and discovered that frequently 
at the high speeds the exhaust valves did not shut, 
there not being sufficient time owing to the inability 
of the valve spring to close the valve in the interval 
before a cam returned to open it again. With such 
a condition it is certain that the most powerful mix- 
ture was not obtained. With the sleeve valve such 
failure of operation cannot be, because no matter how 
fast the motor is operating there is a definite opening 
and closing for both intake and exhaust valve. 

. "It is a well-known fact that with poppet valves 
the tension of the springs on the exhaust side varies 
after five or six weeks' use, and consequently the 
accuracy of opening and closing is interfered with. 
Carbon gets on the valve seatings and prevents proper 
closing of the valve, with the result that the compres- 
sion is interfered with and the face of the valve in- 
jured. These troubles are, as far as can be learned, 
obviated in the sleeve valve." 

The friends of the Knight motor claim that it is 
simpler than the ordinary types of engines, having 
about one third less parts, that it is economic, power- 
ful, and, as previously pointed out, runs silently. 
Beside these advantages, there are claimed for it 
many technical virtues that we need not enter into 
here. 



THE LATEST AUTOMOBILE ENGINE 329 

The lubricating system of the Knight motors is 
another interesting point, as it serves to illustrate 
one more way in which the gasoline engine has been im- 
proved upon of late years. The manner of oiling used 
is known as the "movable dam" system. Located 
transversely beneath the six connecting rods are six 
oil troughs hinged on a shaft connected with the 
throttle. With the opening and closing of the throttle 
these troughs are automatically raised and lowered. 
When the throttle is opened, which raises the troughs, 
the points on the ends of the connecting rods dip 
deep into the oil and create a splashing of oil on the 
lower ends of the sliding sleeves. These sleeves are 
grooved circularly on their outer surfaces in order 
to distribute the oil evenly, while toward the 
lower ends holes are drilled to allow for the passage 
of oil. 

When the motor is throttled down, which lowers 
the troughs, the points barely dip into the oil and a 
corresponding less amount of oil is splashed. An oil 
pump keeps the troughs constantly overflowing. 

The motor is cooled by a complete system of water 
jackets, and it is fitted with a double ignition system, 
each independent of the other. 

Of course in the adoption of the sliding sleeve type, 
mushroom valves, cams, cam rollers, cam shafts, valve 
springs, and train of front engine gears all are elimi- 
nated, the sliding parts fulfilling their various func- 
tions. 



330 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

Before Mr. Knight ever achieved success with his 
motor it was subjected to some of the severest tests 
on record in the whole automobile industry. In 
France, Germany, and England, it was only accepted 
by the leading manufacturers after being tried out 
for periods extending over several months of the 
hardest kind of usage. Now, that it has proven itself 
a practical success, automobile men declare that the 
sliding valve principle, never before applied to gas 
engines until Knight began work, will undoubtedly 
have a lasting effect on the whole industry. 

The compact little two-cycle motors represent 
another big fundamental development in the field 
of gas engines. There are many different makes of 
two-cycle motors, of course, and all have their various 
merits. They are used in practically all the work 
for which gas engines are employed, including auto- 
mobiles, motor boats, and aeroplanes. It will not 
be necessary to describe these engines further than 
to say that the name describes the fundamental 
difference between them and the four-cycle motors. 
Instead of the piston making four strokes for every 
explosion — that is, an upward stroke to clean out 
the burnt vapours, a downward stroke to suck in 
the fresh gas, an upward stroke to compress it, and 
finally the downward explosion or power stroke, all 
this work is done in two strokes. 

For the general development of the gasoline engine, 
it is only necessary for a boy to look about him. 



THE LATEST AUTOMOBILE ENGINE 331 

Everywhere motors built on the same ideas as laid 
down in earlier inventions, but improved in every 
detail, are in use. Not only do we see them on fine 
pleasure automobiles, motor boats, and aeroplanes, 
but on our biggest trucks, fire engines, and in business 
establishments where light machinery is to be run. 



CHAPTER XI 

THE WIRELESS TELEGRAPH UP TO THE 

MINUTE 

THE SCIENTIST TALKS OF AMATEUR WIRELESS OPERA- 
TORS THE GREAT DEVELOPMENT OF WIRELESS 

THAT HAS ENABLED IT TO SAVE ABOUT THREE THOU- 
SAND LIVES LONG DISTANCE WORK OF THE MOD- 
ERN INSTRUMENTS 

WHILE the inspiring stories of Jack Binns 
of the steamship Republic, and of J. G. 
Phillips and Harold S. Bride of the ill-fated 
Titanic are fresh in our minds, it is not necessary to say 
that within the last few years the wireless telegraph 
has established itself as indispensable to the safe navi- 
gation of the seas. The story of its development is 
a marvellous one when we think that it was only in 
December of 1901 that Marconi received the first 
signal ever transmitted across the Atlantic Ocean 
without wires. Now, as every boy knows, all the big 
steamships are equipped with wireless, all the govern- 
ments of the world operate their own stations to 
communicate with their warships, at sea, and thou- 
sands upon thousands of boy amateurs operate their 
own little plants with complete success. 

332 



THE WIRELESS TELEGRAPH 333 

More wonderful still is the story when we think 
that by the use of this invention a total of about three 
thousand persons have been saved from death in 
shipwrecks. Nowhere in the pages of all history 
are there any more thrilling stories of heroism and 
devotion to duty than those of the men who, in the 
face of death themselves, have stuck by their keys 
sending out over the waves the "C. Q. D." and the 
"S. O. S." signals, which as every boy knows are the 
w r ireless calls for help. 

The scientist and his boy friend never tired of talk- 
ing of these things, for the young man was one of the 
many amateurs who had mastered the art, so that 
many a night as he sat at his receiver he caught the 
messages of steamships far out on the broad Atlantic, 
and heard the Navy Yard station transmitting orders 
to Uncle Sam's ships at sea. 

One day shortly after the Titanic disaster the 
boy said to his friend: "I saw by the paper to-day 
that they are talking of passing a law to prevent the 
amateur wireless operators from working. I don't 
think they ought to do that. I'm sure most amateurs 
never interfere with any signals, as was said they did 
in connection with the messages to and from ships 
that went to the rescue of the Titanic." 

" So long as the amateurs do not have powerful 
sending apparatus," answered the scientist, "I don't 
think they will make any serious trouble, for it 
makes no confusion to have them 'listening In 1 on 



334 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

the passing radiographs. Of course with a powerful 
sender a mischievous person could work irreparable 
damage by sending fake messages of one kind or 
another. In fact there have been several instances 
of messages that were thought to be fakes, but I 
am sure no boy with the intelligence to rig up a wire- 
less outfit, would be so lacking in understanding of 
his responsibilities as to try to confuse traffic. 

"But it would be a shame to stop the amateurs 
altogether/ 5 he continued, "for, no matter what the 
companies may say, the wireless telegraph is still 
in an experimental stage, and we must look to the 
bright boys who are studying it now, for its greatest 
development. The marvellous strides in improving 
the apparatus, and solving the mysteries of electro- 
magnetic currents, that have been made in the last 
dozen years, should be eclipsed in the next decade, 
if young men with some practical experience and a 
desire to get at the real scientific basis of the art, 
work at it. 5 ' 

"What are some of the main improvements of the 
last few years?" asked the boy. 

For answer, the scientist and the boy made a 
journey down to the steamship docks, and visited 
the wireless cabins of several of the big transatlantic 
liners. They also went to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, 
where there is a wireless school, that turns out Navy 
operators after a thorough course in all the various 
branches of the art. While on vacations to the sea- 



THE WIRELESS TELEGRAPH 885 

shore, the youth had visited some of the big high- 
power stations that send and receive messages to and 
from the ships at sea. 

In talking to the operators and electricians the 
boy learned much about the wide extent to which 
wireless is used nowadays. The law passed by 
Congress in the United States in 1911, making it 
necessary for every passenger steamer sailing from 
American ports with fifty or more passengers, to carry 
a wireless outfit capable of working at least 100 
miles, in charge of a licensed operator, capable of 
transmitting 20 or more words a minute, did a great 
deal to increase the use of wireless. Also, not only 
the actions of one government but the concerted 
action of all the civilized nations represented at 
the various international wireless conferences have 
brought it to the official notice of the whole world. 

Thus it has become a commercial reality on the 
sea, and the Great Lakes, and also it has become 
a big factor in war. All of the nations, besides hav- 
ing their warships equipped with wireless, now have 
wireless squads in the army, and have small compact 
apparatus that can be transported in small wagons, 
or even on horses 5 backs. These portable army 
wireless outfits are very valuable for the communica- 
tion between detachments of an army, particularly 
in places where there are few disturbing elements to 
intercept the electro-magnetic waves. 

In the recent campaign in Tripoli, in the war be- 



336 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

tween Italy and Turkey, the wireless was extensively 
used by the Italian army in the field, and it was found 
that the messages radiated over the desert just about 
as well as over the sea. Of course as will be seen 
later, it is not meant here to convey the idea that 
wireless cannot be sent over the land, for the electro- 
magnetic waves travel through the ether in every 
direction, and as the ether fills the whole universe, 
mountains, buildings, or water just as well as the air, 
the waves are thought to go through obstacles as well 
as over water. The difficulty in sending over land, 
is that there are various electrical disturbances that 
intercept and confuse the wireless waves. In other 
words, wireless works through mere physical obstruc- 
tions without any difficulty, just so long as certain 
little known electrical disturbances do not interfere. 
Just think of the thousands and thousands of wire- 
less messages that are passing through the ether every 
hour of the day and night. And yet the scientists 
really know very little about the laws that govern 
them! 

One of the instances of the strange antics of wire- 
less was told to the boy by an operator who had been 
in charge of the wireless outfit on a Hudson River 
boat. He said that he and the operators on the other 
boats were able to communicate with a station on 
shore until they had passed the Poughkeepsie bridge, 
and the great steel and stone structure stretched 
between the boat and the station. Immediately com- 



THE WIRELESS TELEGRAPH 337 

munication stopped short and all efforts failed to 
get any response. A series of experiments proved 
that the obstruction was at the bridge, but whether 
it was some electrical property in the bridge itself, 
or in the hills on each side of the bridge, they have 
never been able to find out, and the land station 
was finally discontinued. 

This is just an instance of what the scientists do 
not know about wireless, but it shows the many boy 
amateurs that there are still worlds for them to con- 
quer in scientific research. 

The central principle upon which the wireless tele- 
graph works now is the same as it was when Marconi, 
through his marvellous invention, first received a 
signal from the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, but 
the inventors have learned much more about the 
details of the theory and it is in the improvement of 
devices for applying these laws of electricity that the 
development has been, rather than in the discovery 
of new theories. Nikola Tesla's invention for the 
wireless transmission of power by earth waves is a 
revolutionary departure from the usual wireless prac- 
tice, but as we saw in the earlier chapter on this 
subject the Tesla invention has not yet been put 
in practical operation. 

Though Guglielmo Marconi did not discover the 
laws of electricity upon which his invention is based, 
to him belongs all the credit for making use of the 
discoveries of the scientists of his day, and working 



338 THE BOYS BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

out from them a practical system of wireless com- 
munication. 

As many boys know, the wireless telegraph is 
possible through the radiation of electric waves. For 
instance, if a stone is thrown into a pool waves are 
started out in every direction from the point where 
the water is disturbed. The water does not move 
except up and down, and yet the waves pass on until 
they reach the side of the pool, or their force is 
expended. 

The scientists before Marconi found out that when 
an electric spark was made to jump between two 
magnetic poles it started electric waves in every 
direction, much like the stone thrown into the pool, 
except at a speed that is reckoned at 186,000 miles 
per second. 

Prof. Amos Dolbear, of Tufts College, Massachu- 
setts, first made use of these waves in 1880, and a few 
years later Doctor Hertz, conducting experiments 
along the same lines, discovered them. Since that 
time these waves have been called Hertzian waves. 

For many years scientists had understood that 
electrical waves or vibrations travelled through the 
ether in a copper wire, and that gave us telegraphy 
by wires, but it was a new thing to think of the waves 
travelling in every direction through space without 
wires. These early investigators found out that they 
could detect these waves by a device called a Hertzian 
loop, which was simply a copper wire bent into a 



THE WIRELESS TELEGRAPH 339 

hoop with the two ends close together but not touch- 
ing. A spark would appear between the ends of the 
wire when the electric waves were sent out. 

Marconi began his work where these scientists 
left off, as a very young man on his father's farm in 
Italy, but soon went to England, of which country 
his mother was a native, and placed the results of 
his experiments before the government authorities. 
Continuing his labors he soon had his wireless appa- 
ratus worked out in the form in which it first became 
known to the world. 

It consisted of a transmitter, receiving machine 
or detector, and a set of antennae or aerial wires from 
which the electrical waves were sent. For his trans- 
mitter, he created a spark between the two brass knobs 
on the ends of two thick brass wires by closing and 
opening an electrical circuit with a key, very much 
like, but somewhat larger than the regulation tele- 
graph key. The space between the knobs was called 
the spark gap. For a dash he would hold down 
his key and make a large spark, and for a dot he 
would release his key quickly and make only a short 
one. Thus, he could send the regular Morse or 
Continental telegraphic codes of dots and dashes. 
These impulses were transmitted by wires to the 
aerial wires, or antennae. The impulses left the 
antennae as electro-magnetic waves, and went forth in 
all directions, only to be caught on the antennae of 
another station aboard a ship or on land. 



340 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

Here is where the receiver did its work, and 
the problem was a far more difficult one than the 
working out of the transmitter, for the waves as 
received were too weak in themselves to register 
a dot or a dash. In Marconi's first instruments he 
used a device called the "coherer. 55 This was a glass 
tube about as big around as a lead pencil, and perhaps 
two inches long. It was plugged at each end with 
silver, and the narrow space between the plugs was 
filled with finely powdered fragments of nickel and 
silver, which possess the strange property of being 
alternately very good and very bad electrical con- 
ductors. The waves in Marconi's first experiments 
were received on a suspended kite wire, exactly 
similar to the wire used in the transmitter, but they 
were so weak that they could not of themselves 
operate an ordinary telegraph instrument. They 
possessed strength enough, however, to draw the 
little particles of silver and nickel in the coherer 
together in a continuous metal path. In other words, 
they made these particles "cohere," and the moment 
they cohered they became a good conductor for 
electricity, and a current from a battery near at hand 
rushed through the connection, operated the Morse 
instrument, and caused it to print a dot or a dash; 
then a little tapper, actuated by the same current, 
struck against the coherer, the particles of metal 
were broken apart, becoming a poor conductor, and 
cutting off the current from the home battery. 



THE WIRELESS TELEGRAPH 341 

In Marconi's early experiments there was little 
or no attempt at tuning the instruments for waves 
of certain lengths, but this art has been developed 
to a high state in modern wireless telegraphy and we 
shall see how the operator tunes his instruments to 
talk to any one special station. 

The distinguishing feature of the modern wireless 
transmitter, now familiar to every boy who has ever 
taken a trip aboard a large ship, or attended an 
electrical show, as it was in the old days, is the 
"crack, crack, cr-r-r-ack, crack" of the spark as it 
flickers between the brass knobs of the instrument, 
as the operator pounds away at his key. In some of 
the great high-power land stations, where long 
distance work is done the crash of the spark is like 
that of thunder, the flame is as big around as a man's 
wrist and of such intensity that it could not be looked 
at with unshaded eyes. On ships where the crash 
is too loud it has become necessary to cover the 
spark gap with a wooden muffler so as to deaden the 
noise. 

While the simple spark gap of the early Marconi 
instruments was enough to send out the Hertzian 
waves, the modern transmitter is a marvel of elec- 
trical construction utilizing as it does the latest 
discoveries in electrical apparatus. 

The most noticeable difference in the sending 
apparatus is in the arrangement of the two wires 
between which the spark flies. In the early instru- 



342 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

ments the wires were set in a horizontal line, and 
connected to an induction coil, but in the later ones 
the oscillator was turned up lengthwise with the 
spark gap between the vertical wings. 

The different position of the spark gap is a change 
only in form, and not in principle. In the Marconi 
apparatus used nowadays the current comes from a 
dynamo of more than 110 volts, direct current. The 
two terminals of the circuit are connected with an 
induction coil, and from there to the two ends of the 
wires, making the terminals of the spark gap. The 
upper wire runs from the spark gap to the aerial, and 




MARCONI TRANSMITTER LAYOUT 1 



A -Key. 

B — Induction coil. 

C — Spark gap. 

D — Dynamo. 

E — Rheostat. 

F — Interrupter magnet. 

G — Aerial. 

H — High tension transformer. 

I — Groins wire. 

K — Battery oi _?vden jars. 



the lower runs through a battery of Leyden jars, 
through a high tension transformer (as does the other 
side of the circuit), and thence to the ground. Aboard 
ship the ground connection is simply made by attach- 
ing a wire to the hull of the ship, which is in 
connection with the water, the best possible earth 
connection. 



THE WIRELESS TELEGRAPH 343 

There are, of course, a great many different kinds 
of transmitters, but they are all worked out on the 
same general principle — a spark gap which creates 
electrical oscillations that are sent into the ether from 
the aerials. 

In some modern stations an alternating current is 
used at more than 100 volts and is stepped up through 
a transformer to about 30,000 volts. This high 
power current then charges a condenser consisting 
of a battery of Leyden jars. 

When the operator presses his key he establishes 
a connection, which immediately sets up electrical 
waves oscillating at a rate of anywhere from 100,000 
to 2,500,000 per second. These oscillations are car- 
ried to the antennae where they pass into the ether 
and spread in all directions to be caught on the aerials 
of all stations within range. 

One of the improvements in wireless transmission 
which makes long distance work possible aboard 
ships is the use of what the engineers call "coupled 
circuits." The arrangement consists in connecting 
the aerial to an induction coil, and connecting the 
latter with a ground wire. Another coil is placed 
close to this and is connected with the spark gap, 
and a condenser. The period of oscillation of the 
antennae circuit, and of the spark gap circuit arc 
timed to be exactly the same. The two circuits 
are then called "coupled circuits, "for while they arc 
coupled together by induction only, the oscillation or 



344 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

spark gap circuit increases its capacity, and at the 
same time has a small spark gap. 

With these new devices for increasing the power 
of the oscillations, or in other words throwing a 
bigger stone into the pond, the electrical waves are 
sent out with far greater force, just as the water 
waves are sent farther in the pond, and will reach 
stations at a greater distance. 

" Crash, bang/ 5 goes the oscillator, and in less time 
than it takes to think it the oscillations have reached 
the antennse of ships hundreds or thousands of miles 
away, or even those of another land station on the 
other side of the Atlantic Ocean. 

The next thing is to understand the apparatus 
used for receiving the faint electric waves transmitted 
through the ether, for the modern instruments are 
far different from the old style "coherer" explained 
before. As with the spark gaps, there are many 
different styles of receiving devices, all known by the 
general name of "detectors," as they detect the 
faint electro-magnetic waves radiating through the 
ether. 

Some of the latest Marconi experiments show a 
return to the "coherer" idea, very greatly improved 
upon, but the full details of the device have not been 
made public. 

One of the detecting devices used by the Marconi 
system, after the old-style "coherer" was done away 
with, was very simple indeed in comparison to the 





( ourtes] "i the N< « Sfork 1 dis 

THE NAVY WIRELESS SCHOOL 

At top is the class in sending, while below is shown the class learning 

to receive messages 



THE WIRELESS TELEGRAPH 



345 



cohering and tapping machines. It was made up 
of a small glass tube wound with copper wire. One 
end of this made the ground connection, and the 
other end led to the aerial, and also to an earth con- 
nection through a tuning inductance coil. Then 
another coil was wound around the first one on the 
glass tube and connected with the head telephone 
receivers which have taken the place of the Morse 
dot and dash printing instrument in all the modern 
wireless instruments. Two magnets were placed just 
above the glass tube, and a flexible iron wire was made 
to move through it by means of a pair of rollers a 
little way from each end. When the electro-magnetic 




MARCONI 
DECEPTER LAYOUT 



A — Aerial. 
B — Condenser. 

C — Glass tube oscillator transformer. 
"\ D — D'— Rollers. 

) E — E' — Iron wire passing through 
oscillator transformer. 
F — F'— Magnets. 
G — G' — Ground wires. 
H — Telephone receiver. 



waves reached the aerial and made oscillations in the 
first coil about the glass tube, the magnetic intensity 
of the iron wire band was disturbed and the glass tube 
became an oscillation transformer, setting up cur- 
rents in the coil leading to the telephone receivers. 
The impulses were manifested by ticks, just the 



346 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

length of the dots and dashes being sent out by 
the operator perhaps thousands of miles away. 

Another form of detector is the " electrolytic" 
which consists of a very fine platinum wire about 
one ten-thousandth of an inch in diameter, which 
dips into a platinum cup filled with nitric acid. When 
the invisible electro-magnetic waves impinge upon 
the wires of the receiving station, and cause elec- 
trical surges to take place in those wires, they in 
turn affect the detector, giving an exact reproduc- 
tion of the note of the transmitting spark at the 
distant station. 

This device has since been replaced by one of 
another type, equally sensitive and much better 
suited for general work on account of its greater 
stability and freedom from atmospheric disturbances. 
This detector consists simply of a crystal of carborun- 
dum supported between two brass points. When 
connected to the antennae it is affected by the oscilla- 
tions caused by distant transmitting stations as pre- 
viously stated. These wireless signals are reproduced 
in telephone receivers. 

Another frequently used detector known as the 
Audion is composed of a small incandescent lamp 
with filaments of carbon, tantalum, or preferably 
tungsten, and one or more sheets or wings of platinum 
secured near the filaments. The lamp is lighted by 
a set of home batteries, and is connected with a 
ground wire, the aerial, and the telephone receivers. 



THE WIRELESS TELEGRAPH 347 

The tungsten filament and the platinum wing act 
as two electrodes, and the faint electric oscillations 
received on the antennse and transmitted to the 
platinum plate are supposed to affect the discharge 
of negatively electrified particles, or ions, between 
the two electrodes. This affects the flow of the 
battery current, and consequently registers the oscil- 
lations in the telephone receivers. 

By diligent study of the subject the wireless experts 
also have learned that the arrangement of the aerials 
is of great importance, because much depends upon 
the send-off received by the electrical oscillations. 
In Marconi's early experiments he used a single 
wire attached to a kite, then changed to a single 
wire stretched from the top of a high mast. Later, the 
system of stretching the wires horizontally between 
two masts, as we see them so often aboard passenger 
steamships, and at land stations, came into general 
use. The old idea that the height of the aerial 
wires had something to do with the efficiency of the 
apparatus has passed, for science showed that the 
electro-magnetic waves travelled in all directions 
irrespective of land, water, mountains, or buildings. 
Whether, in sending messages across the ocean, they 
actually pass through the globe, or follow the curve 
of the surface, is more than the most careful wireless 
students have been able to tell. 

Another of the big improvements in wireless is 
in the tuning of the instruments to certain wave 



348 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

lengths or rates of vibrations, and in controlling the 
wave lengths by the sender. Science has established 
that these waves usually vary from a few feet up 
to 12,000 feet or more. The ordinary wave lengths 
for ships is between 1,000 feet and 1,800 feet, but 
on the biggest land stations and the transatlantic 
liners the full 12,000 feet is used. Even greater 
lengths of waves are used by the big Marconi 
stations transmitting messages between Clifden, on 
the west coast of Ireland, and Glace Bay, Nova 
Scotia. The reason for this is that with the same 
power messages can be sent greater distances with 
long waves lengths than with shorter ones. 

The wave length is controlled by an apparatus 
called the " helix/ 5 which may be seen in the picture 
of the wireless outfit. It looks like a drum wound 
with a spiral of copper tubing, and although it looks 
simple it presents some of the greatest problems in 
connection with wireless. 

On the receiving end is the instrument called the 
tuner, by which the operator can adjust his detector to 
the wave lengths being sent out by the station with 
which he wishes to talk. There are various kinds of 
" tuners, " all more or less complicated. The device 
corresponds to the telephone exchange or the telegraph 
switch-board. Of course a good receiving apparatus 
can be tuned so that the operator can listen to any 
messages going through the ether, within range, but 
all messages that are intended to be secret are sent in 



THE WIRELESS TELEGRAPH 349 

code, just as all wire and cable messages that are 
secret are sent in code. 

In line with the advent of wireless telegraphy it 
is fitting that we should have the wireless telephone. 
While this instrument is still in the experimental 
stage, some very promising results have been ob- 
tained. There are several experimental wireless 
telephone stations in New York City, but the best 
results are obtained when some one keeps up a 
steady conversation, so it is far easier to connect the 
reproducer of a phonograph to the transmitter of 
the wireless telephone. It is surprising how dis- 
tinctly this music or speech is received. In fact 
the ship operators nearing New York are often 
entertained by strains of music from these wireless 
telephones. The wireless telephones employ what 
are known as undamped oscillations created by 
electric arcs, and it is very easy to "tune out" such 
vibrations for musical effects. 

Just as we have the motion-picture "newspaper," 
we have the wireless newspaper published aboard 
the big transatlantic liners every day. The news 
is sent out from certain land stations at certain 
times in the day and night, and every ship within 
range copies it, and publishes it just as our regular 
daily papers are published. Of course, the paper 
is small, but it usually contains most of the important 
news of the day, the big sporting items, such as base- 
ball scores, and the stock quotations. 



350 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

In the United States the great station at Welfleet, 
Cape Cod, Mass., sends out the press matter each 
night from dispatches prepared in the main offices 
of the big American press associations. Ships as 
far as 1,600 miles distant frequently receive this news 
matter, and by the time the ocean-going editor is 
ready to get out his next day's edition he is in touch 
with the wireless press station on the other side, and 
is receiving the world's news from the English coast. 

As our young friend found out when he was gather- 
ing up all the information he could about aeroplanes, 
some success has been made in the equipment of the 
fliers with wireless. The project offers some serious 
difficulties, however, as on an aeroplane there is 
no place for long aerials. Experiments have been 
tried with long trailing wires, but these are dangerous 
to the aeroplane, and to use the wires of the machine 
for antennae endangers the operator to electric shocks. 
One scheme tried by several aviators in the United 
States with some success has been the stringing of 
aerials in the rear framework. 

The problem of equipping balloons and airships 
with wireless is much simpler because it allows of 
long trailing wires to act as the antennae. Most 
boys will remember the success of the wireless 
apparatus that was set up on the America at the 
time Walter Wellman made his famous attempt to 
cross the Atlantic in his airship. 

That wireless will take its place as one of the great 



THE WIRELESS TELEGRAPH 351 

forces in civilization is the idea of Guglielmo Marconi, 
the inventor of the wireless telegraph, expressed when 
he was in New York in the spring of 1912. 

"I believe/ 5 he said, "that in the near future a 
wireless message will be sent from New York com- 
pletely round the globe with no relaying, and will 
be received by an instrument located in the same 
office as the transmitter, in perhaps even less time 
than Shakespeare's forty minutes. 

"Most messages across the Atlantic will probably 
go by wireless at a comparatively early date. In 
time of war wireless connections will be invaluable. 
The enemy can cut cables and telegraph wires; but 
it is difficult seriously to damage the wireless service. 
The British Empire has realized this, and is already 
equipping many of its outposts with wireless sta- 
tions." 



CHAPTER XII 
MORE MARVELS OF SCIENCE 

COLOUR PHOTOGRAPHY, THE TUNGSTEN ELECTRIC 
LAMP, THE PULMOTOR, AND OTHER NEW INVEN- 
TIONS INVESTIGATED BY OUR BOY FRIEND 

BEFORE we leave our good friend the scientist 
and his young companion, let us go over a 
few more of the things about which they 
talked. To take up all of them would be to prolong 
this book indefinitely, for the boy's mind was ever 
unfolding to the new things of the world and with 
each subject mastered, or at least partially under- 
stood, he was anxious to go on to the next. Not 
that he did not have his special hobbies upon which 
he spent most of his time, for he did, but that did not 
prevent his inquiring young mind from reaching out 
for new and more wonderful things once he had come 
to realize the world of marvels in which we live. 

One of this youth's favourite pastimes was photog- 
raphy, and as an amateur his work had attracted 
considerable attention from his friends. One day 
in the summer, when all the trees, shrubs, and flowers 
were at the height of their beauty, he came into the 

352 



MORE MARVELS OF SCIENCE 353 

laboratory where his scientific friend was working 
over an experiment. 

"I have heard of a process of colour photography/' 
he said, "and I wonder if I couldn't make use of it 
to get some good pictures out in the country, show^ing 
just exactly how it is." 

"Certainly," replied his friend. "There are a 
number of systems of colour photography now — all 
invented within the last few years. None of them 
is perfect though, and you would have the added 
fun of carrying on some experiments that might 
bring to light some valuable knowledge. 

"While it is possible to make coloured photographic 
prints now, by means of a specially treated paper, 
colour photography is best known as a means of 
making beautiful transparent glass plates and lantern 
slides. When held up to the light, the transparencies 
give an accurate picture of the scene in natural 
colours. The paper I mention can be bought at the 
photographic houses, but the inventors do not claim 
yet that their process is so perfect as to give exact 
reproductions of all the shades of colours unless they 
are well defined in the positive plates. The prints 
are made from the positive transparencies in just 
the same way that photographic prints are made from 
black and white photographic plates." 

"Let's try some colour photographs," promptly 
said the boy. "Will you go out into the country 
with me some Saturday and help me?" 



354 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

"I certainly will be glad to go with you, but you 
are a better photographer than I am, for you see, 
about the only kind of photography I do now is with 
a microscope, such as you have looked through here 
many times. Your own regular camera and tripod 
will be all you will need, for I will buy the colour 
plates upon which the pictures are to be taken." 

They made their trip to the country on the first 
pleasant Saturday, and while they were out the scien- 
tist explained many points about the system. 

'Years ago," he said, "even before that wonderful 
Frenchman, Daguerre, invented light photography, 
scientists were trying to discover some means of 
mechanically registering on paper, the beautiful 
things they saw in nature, in their natural colours, 
as well as in their natural form in black and white. 
All through the years of the development of pho- 
tography with light and shadow, scientists never 
relaxed their search for some way of photographing 
colours. Although many of them hit upon the 
colour screen idea by which it finally w r as accom- 
plished, there remained years and years of patient 
experiment. Prof. James Clark Maxwell, Ducos du 
Hauron, Doctor Konig, Sanger Shepherd, and, in 
later years, Frederick Eugene Ives, of Philadelphia, 
all worked on the idea. 

" In 1907, however, Antoine Lumiere, of the famous 
French photographic house that bears his name, 
announced a system of colour photography which 



MORE MARVELS OF SCIENCE 355 

has grown in popularity ever since. The system, 
which is known as the autochrome, was the result 
of many years patient study and research with his 
sons who are associated in business with him." 

The scientist then went on to explain that in 
attacking the problem the investigators first had 
to learn all they could about colours, and how they 
are reflected by light rays. As we have seen in the 
colour process for motion pictures there are really 
only three fundamental or primary colours, and all 
other shades and tints are made up from combina- 
tions of these. The three are blue-violet, green, and 
orange-red, and a screen of these forms the foundation 
of all the colour plates now used. 

In the autochrome process the lowly potato, which 
we generally think of merely as a common article 
of our food, forms the first factor. The starch 
of the potato is ground down and sifted so that the 
grains are the same size — not more than 0.0004 
to 0.0005 of an inch in diameter. These grains then 
are divided into three equal portions, and each portion 
is dyed, respectively, blue-violet, green, and orange- 
red. The three little piles of starch grains are then 
mixed together in suitable amounts and dusted on to 
a plate, which has previously been coated with a 
substance to make them stick. The difficulty in dust- 
ing on the starch grains is great, for they must cover 
the whole plate equally and yet not make any piles 
of starch at any one point, for to have several grains 



356 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

on top of one another would spoil the effect. The 
extreme delicacy of this operation will be appreciated 
when it is realized that there are over five million 
grains to the square inch. When the starch is all 
properly placed it makes the colour screen, though 
in appearance the plate is a dark gray. 

The plate is next put through a rolling process 
so that all the grains are flattened out to form a 
mosaic covering over the whole surface. In spite of 
all the manufacturers can do there will still be some 
microscopic spaces between the particles, and these 
are filled up with a fine powder of carbon to prevent 
the passage of light. 

The screen is then coated with a very thin layer 
of varnish and upon this is laid a thin and extremely 
sensitive photographic emulsion. 

"And so that is the way these autochrome plates 
we have here were made/ 5 concluded the scientist. 
"Now our troubles begin, for we must be careful 
to give them a fair trial with the proper kind of an 
exposure and the proper kind of development/' 

As the plates are extremely sensitive to all kinds 
of light the scientist cautioned the boy against load- 
ing the camera carelessly. It is better, he said, to 
load in a dark room. 

In putting the plates in the camera the plates are 
reversed and instead of placing the sensitized side 
toward the lens, the uncoated glass is put in front 
and the photograph is taken through the glass. Thus, 



MORE MARVELS OF SCIENCE 357 

the image first passes through the glass, next, through 
the grains of coloured starch, and, lastly, is recorded 
on the sensitive photographic emulsion. 

Before loading the camera, however, the scientist 
fitted a yellow colour screen over the lens, explaining 
that this was necessary to absorb some of the over- 
active blue-violet fight rays, to which the emulsion 
is extremely sensitive. 

In exposing the plate what happens is this: Sup- 
pose a green field is to be photographed. The green 
rays of light, reflected from the field, pass through the 
lens, and through the glass support of the plate. But 
when they reach the coloured starch, the green rays 
pass through the green particles of starch, but not 
through the violet-blue particles, or the orange- 
red particles, for the grains of other colours absorb 
the green rays and hold them. Thus, development 
would show that the green light rays passing through 
the green starch particles caused the emulsion to 
darken under the green particles in just the propor- 
tion in which the green light reached them, and to 
record the image they carried. As the light would 
not pass through the other coloured particles they 
would not record any image. Thus a negative is 
produced, as we have seen, not the colour we see in 
life but the complement. By treating the plate with 
a solvent of silver the tiny black specks that were 
brought out behind each green particle are removed 
and each starch grain is allowed to transmit exactly 



358 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

the colour we see in life. In other words, we have a 
positive. 

This is just as true of all the shades and hues as it 
is of the three fundamental colours, for the various 
rays of light will penetrate the starch in just the pro- 
portion of the hues they represent in the scene before 
our eyes. While the silver solvent will remove the 
dark images built up by the penetration of green 
light, it will leave behind the particles of red-orange, 
and blue-violet, backed up by the creamy silver 
bromide of the emulsion. If above the green field 
we had a blue sky, the blue-violet particles would 
let the blue-violet rays penetrate them, and record 
the image of the sky. 

After the negative has been treated and made a 
positive, a second development reduces the silver 
bromide to opaque metallic silver, preventing any 
light from passing through the grains through which 
a part of the image did not pass. This second bath 
also brightens the colours, while the hypo bath 
removes the unaltered silver bromide ensuring per- 
manency to the image. 

"Of course in taking these colour photographs, " 
went on the scientist, " we must take into considera- 
tion a great many things, to which the manufacturers 
will call your attention in their booklets. The ex- 
posure is the most important part of all, for these 
plates are necessarily slow and must be exposed for 
a much longer time than the ordinary rapid plates. 



MORE MARVELS OF SCIENCE 359 

For instance, this field, with this bright summer sun- 
light, will require a full second with this lens at XL 
S. 4." 

The scientist then went on to give the boy direc- 
tions for developing his colour plates, as follows : 

The whole process of development consists of three 
operations and but two solutions are required, one 
of them being kept preferably in two stock solutions. 
Apothecary weight is used. 

STOCK DEVELOPER 

Water 30 ounces 

Metoquinone 3§ drams 

Sodium sulphite (dry) 3 ounces 

Ammonia (density 0.923 or 22 degrees B). . . 1 ounce 

Potassium bromide 1| drams 

Dissolve the metroquinone first in lukewarm water and then 
the other chemicals in the order given. 

STOCK REVERSING SOLUTIONS 

A. Water 25 ounces 

Potassium permanganate 50 grains 

B. Water 25 ounces 

Sulphuric acid 4 drams 

Errors in exposure are to be corrected by varying 
the duration of development and the amount of 
stock solution added after the appearance of the 
image. Use the solutions at a temperature of (50 
degrees Fahrenheit, and start development of a 
5x7 plate in 

Water * ounces 

Metoquinone stock solution 2 drains 



360 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

Have ready two graduates, one containing 6 drams 
of the stock developer, the other 2 J ounces. Begin 
counting seconds upon immersion of the plate in 
the weak developer and watch for the outlines of 
the image, not considering the sky. If the time of 
appearance is less than 40 seconds, add the smaller 
quantity of stock solution; if more, add the greater. 
The total times of development are given in the 
following table. Cover the tray for protection 
from light as soon as the solution has been modified 
properly. 



TIME, IN SECONDS, OF AP- 
PEARANCE OE IMAGE, DIS- 


QUANTITY OF METO- 

QUINONE STOCK SOLUTION 

TO BE ADDED AFTER 

IMAGE APPEARS. 


TOTAL DURATION OF DEVELOPMENT, 
INCLUDING TIME OF APPEARANCE 


REGARDING £RE SKY. 


Minutes 


Seconds. 


12 to 14 


6 drams 


1 


15 


15 " 17 


cc 


1 


45 


18 " 21 


c< 


2 


15 


22 " 27 


tt 


3 


15 


28 " 33 


C€ 


3 


30 


34 " 39 


C< 


4 
3 


30 


40 to 47 


%\ ounces 




Over 47 


a a 


4 





As soon as development is finished rinse the plate 
briefly, immerse in equal parts of the reversing 
solutions and carry the tray into bright day fight. 
Gradually the image clears and the true colours are 
seen by transmitted light. In three or four minutes 
the action will be complete. Rinse the plate in 
running water for thirty or forty seconds and immerse 



MORE MARVELS OF SCIENCE 361 

again, still in daylight, in the developer. In three 
or four minutes the white parts of the image will be 
seen to have turned entirely black. The plate may 
now be rinsed for three or four minutes in running 
water and set away to dry without fixing. 

To avoid frilling in summer, it is well to immerse 
the plate for two minutes after reversal in 

Water 5 ounces 

Chrome alum 25 grains 

After a brief rinsing proceed with the second 
development as usual. 

The completed transparency may be protected 
from scratches to a certain extent by varnishing 
the film side, although this is not necessary. The 
varnish consists of 

Benzole (crystallizable) 5 ounces 

Gum dammar 1 ounce 

It should be applied cold in the usual way, making 
sure that the entire surface is covered, and then 
setting the plate on edge to dry. 

The other colour processes now used with success 
also are based upon the colour screen. 

The process known as the omnicolore, which was 
brought out in France, depends upon a screen con- 
sisting of a very fine network of violet lines in one 
direction, crossed by red and green lines at right 
angles. The usual sensitive emulsion is placed over 
these. The lines run more than two hundred to the 



362 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

inch but they can be seen by close examination of 
the plate. 

In the Thames process which was brought out in 
England the colour screen and the sensitive emulsion 
are on separate plates which must be bound together 
during exposure and again placed in register or in 
exactly the same relative position after development. 
This causes some trouble, but reduces expense as the 
failures waste the sensitive plates but not the colour 
screens. The primary colours instead of being 
scattered at random, as in the autochrome system, 
are arranged in a pattern to give the proper propor- 
tions to each. The red-orange and green particles 
are arranged in circles, with the green a little larger 
than the red ones, while the blue particles fill the 
spaces. 

THE NEWEST ELECTRIC LIGHTS 

One evening our boy friend entered the scientist's 
laboratory and found it more brilliantly illuminated 
than it ever had been before. 

"Oh, I know/ 5 he said looking up at the ceiling, 
"those new electric lights up there are tungsten 
lamps. It certainly makes a difference in the looks 
of this place. " 

"Lights up all the dingy corners, doesn't it?" 
answered his friend. "You remember/ 5 he con- 
tinued, "we talked last week about some of the new 



MORE MARVELS OF SCIENCE 363 

kinds of electric light and that made me think that 
I might just as well take advantage of what other 
scientists have done and install this newest kind of 
electric lamps." 

From the ceiling were suspended several station- 
ary fixtures with bright glass reflectors. The lamps 
the boy saw were somewhat larger than the usual 
electric light bulbs, and gave off a beautiful white 
light instead of the slightly yellowish illumination 
that comes from the ordinary ones. He saw that 
the filament from which the illumination came was 
not arranged in a series of horseshoe curves, as in 
the case of the ordinary globes, but that it was strung 
between the ends of cross trees, or "spiders," so 
that there was a greater total length of filament in 
the same size bulb than in the ones used before the 
invention of the tungsten lamp. It is a sight familiar 
enough to most boys in these days of the rapid adop- 
tion of new inventions, but it brought to the boy's 
mind a question that had often occurred to him 
before. 

"Who invented tungsten lights?" he asked. 

"Well, it would hardly be right to say that any 
one individual invented them, for they were really 
a development of science worked out by many men, 
who studied the problem for many years. This 
caused a number of very bitter lawsuits over the 
patents and brought about the imprisonment of 
one United States patent office official who was 



364 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

convicted of falsifying the records at Washington 
to help one of the inventors. This inventor was 
John Allen Heany, and his patents were rejected 
finally, the rights of the tungsten filament going 
to the General Electric Company. The name 'tung- 
sten 5 is taken from the material of which fila- 
ment, or the little wire which lights up in the globe, 
is made." 

"What is tungsten? 55 asked the boy. 

''Tungsten is a metal that for a great many years 
some of our most prominent chemists and scientific in- 
vestigators declared could not be put to the use we 
see it here/ 5 answered the man. 

Noticing that the boy leaned forward in his chair, 
keen on his every word, the boy's friend continued 
his description of this strange metal that has been put 
to work lighting us in our march along the road of life. 

He explained that tungsten, or wolfram, was dis- 
covered in 1781 and was named from the Swedish 
words "tung 55 (heavy) and "sten" (stone). The 
mineral is not found in a pure state but rather in 
wolframite, which is what the scientists call a tung- 
state of iron and manganese, and also in schoolite 
which is calcium tungstate. Pure tungsten is bright 
steel gray, very hard, and very heavy. It is one of 
the most brittle of all the metals and for that reason 
was put to very few uses before the invention of the 
tungsten lamp. It was most commonly used, how- 
ever, in various steel processes, to harden the metal. 



MORE MARVELS OF SCIENCE 365 

From the time Edison invented the incandescent 
lamp in 1879, right up to the present electricians 
have tried to get a better electric light filament. A 
number of persons conceived the idea of making a 
filament of tungsten on account of its peculiar 
characteristics, which seemed to be just about the 
ones needed for the ideal electric light globe. 

In its fundamental idea the tungsten lamp is not 
very greatly different from the early Edison incandes- 
cent lamps, but in the application of the principle there 
is half a century of accomplishment packed into 
a little over a quarter of a century of years. Edison 
saw that he must have a filament that would carry 
the current of electricity, but yet one which would 
be of such high resistance that it would not take 
up all the current fed to it. He saw that he had to 
have a filament that would heat to incandescence 
with the electrical current, and yet one that would 
stand a certain amount of wear and tear, and which 
would not be consumed by the heat. To obtain the 
latter effect he put his filament in an air-tight glass 
globe from which the atmosphere was exhausted, 
leaving it in a vacuum. As there was no air, 
there was no oxygen, and hence there could be 
no oxidization, or, in other words, combustion of the 
filament. 

Edison thought that success lay in a carbon fila- 
ment, and in these early days when he was experi- 
menting at his Menlo Park laboratory he carbonized 



366 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

just about everything he could lay his hands on and 
tried heating the result to incandescence in the 
vacuum globe. Finally, on October 21 , he carbonized 
a piece of cotton thread and put it in his vacuum 
globe in the form of a horseshoe loop. On connecting 
it with his electric circuit he was rewarded by seeing 
a brilliant incandescent light that lasted without 
dimming for forty straight hours. 

What a dim, dingy little light it was in comparison 
to the world famous lights that Edison now puts 
forth ! And yet in one way it was the most brilliant 
light that ever had shone in the world, for it showed 
mankind the pathway toward a complete system of 
electric lighting by incandescent lamps. 

The carbonized cotton thread filament had many 
drawbacks, and Edison continued carbonizing various 
fabrics and fibres, including, it is said, some of the 
red hairs out of the beard of one of his loyal staff! At 
last he hit upon a filament made of carbonized 
Japanese bamboo that was very successful for a 
number of years, but this was later superseded by a 
cellulose mixture mechanically pressed out by dies. 

Meanwhile, several investigators began work with 
tungsten and a similar metal called tantalum because 
of their extremely high melting points, high resist- 
ance, and other technical characteristics favourable 
for an incandescent filament. 

For years they had no success because the metal 
was so very brittle that they could do nothing with 



MORE MARVELS OF SCIENCE 367 

it, but finally a filament of pressed tungsten was 
brought out. In this type of lamp several filament 
loops would be fused or welded together to make one 
complete filament. The result was a very fine 
light, but the little wire was too fragile to stand 
hard usage, and owing to the fact that the various 
connected loops were not all of exactly the same 
thickness, one frequently burned out far ahead of the 
others and caused early lamp failure. 

The next step, and the one which a great many 
scientists had declared impossible, was the manu- 
facture of a tungsten wire through a regular process 
of drawing it out through dies to the desired length, 
and in the desired thickness. The investigators had 
declared that in spite of all they could do, tungsten 
was too brittle ever to be drawn into wire. In the 
latest methods this is accomplished with such per- 
fection that tungsten wire of 0.0015 of an inch in 
diameter is produced. 

"With the invention of a method for drawing out 
tungsten wire," continued the scientist, "an almost 
ideal lamp was practically accomplished. The wire 
simply was strung on the spiders or cross pieces, and 
a filament of almost any length giving almost any 
desired candlepower light could be used. 

"You see in an incandescent light the higher the 
melting point of the filament the greater the quantity 
of light for the amount of electricity used. Also 
tungsten has a low vapour tension, which prevents 



368 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

discolouration of the globe by the evaporation of 
the filament. It also has other advantages which 
are too technical for us to go into. 

"Of course, tungsten lamps still have the drawback 
of being rather delicate. When not in use, and when 
the filament is cold, it is apt to break with rough 
treatment, but when lighted the filament, being at a 
white heat, is more durable. This delicacy of the 
tungsten lamp is the reason the fixtures for most 
of them are placed in stationary positions, rather 
than on swinging drop cords, as is the case with so 
many carbon incandescent lights. 

"While the tungsten lamp is far from perfect, it 
is a great advance over other forms, and an advance 
in the right direction, for it gives a better light with 
a smaller consumption of electricity than other types. 
I think your father will agree with me that anything 
that will help ever so little to reduce the high cost 
of living is a benefit. 5 ' 

"But/' answered the boy, "there are other new 
kinds of electric lights besides tungsten, aren't 
there?" 

"Oh, of course, but they are hardly as generally 
used as the tungsten light. There is the mercury 
light about which you read in 'The Second Boys' 
Book of Inventions, ' several new kinds of arc fights, 
the Nernst light, the tantalum lamp (which we know 
is much like the tungsten lamp with the exception 
that in the latter each loop of the wire can be made 



MORE MARVELS OF SCIENCE 369 

longer), and the new carbon dioxide gas electric 
light, which is a very good imitation of daylight. 

"From all our little scientific journeys you have 
doubtless formed the idea that light is not the simple 
thing it seems, and that the rays of different kinds 
of light will bear a limitless amount of study. Now 
some of the greatest scientists the world ever has 
known have spent the best part of their lives trying 
to produce a light that would duplicate the beautiful 
health -giving rays of the sun. This light we are 
speaking of comes as near to it as any." 

He picked up a long glass test tube and holding it 
between his fingers said: "Now if this tube were 
exhausted of air to a vacuum, and we had an ingeni- 
ous little device at each end which would allow just 
the right amount — no more, no less — of carbon 
dioxide gas to enter it, and also we had electrodes 
at either end, and connected them to an alternating 
current, we would have a rough model of the light 
that duplicates daylight. 

"In actual practice the vacuum tubes are long, and 
turn upon themselves in many lengths. You have 
seen these lights in many places, for photographers, 
lithographers, dye works, textile mills, and all other 
places where the true light of day is necessary for the 
judgment of colours are adopting them for their 
night work." 

"But the light is a ghastly pale blue," interrupted 
the boy. "It doesn't look like daylight to me." 



370 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

"No, you are thinking of the mercury light, which 
also is strung around in tubes. That has a blue- 
greenish tinge to it, and gives people's faces a dis- 
agreeable greenish tinge, but this carbon dioxide 
electric light is white with a salmon pink tinge. Of 
course it isn't perfect, but the men who developed 
it from the work of others who started on this idea 
years ago, are constantly at work trying to improve 
it." 

THE PULMOTOR 

"My father read in the paper to-day about a new 
machine called the pulmotor, which he said was one 
of the greatest inventions ever brought out," said 
our boy friend one day in the winter of 1911-12. 

"Yes, it is a great invention," replied the scientist, 
"and like so many other big things it is so simple we 
wonder how it is no one was bright enough to think 
of it before. I suppose most of us are too busy 
trying to make money." 

"My father said it would be a fine thing for 
humanity and that it would save hundreds of lives 
every year." 

"That is true, and the pulmotor is just about the 
newest invention of our time, along those lines. 
When I first heard of it, I wrote to a friend of mine 
in Chicago, where it was brought out, and asked 
him about it." 

"How does it work?" asked the boy, and ever 



MORE MARVELS OF SCIENCE 371 

willing to explain the marvels of science to his young 
friend, the scientist took a pencil and a piece of paper 
to illustrate as he talked. 

As every boy knows, oxygen is the property in 
the air we breathe that gives us life. Also, every boy 
knows that physicians and surgeons use pure oxygen 
stored in iron tanks to restore respiration to the 
lungs of their patients when breathing has almost 
stopped. Until the invention of the pulmotor, how 
ever, this oxygen was simply introduced into the 
patient's lungs by placing the tube in his mouth 
and turning on the valve. 

The pulmotor makes the patient breathe — because 
it carries on the function for him artificially. "In 
Chicago this winter," said the boy's friend, "there 
were several cases where the pulmotor brought back 
to life people who apparently were dead, from 
asphyxiation, or gas poisoning. The machine is most 
successful where breathing has stopped through some 
unnatural interference, and the rest of the organs 
are physically intact, but of course it can be used in 
all surgical cases just as the ordinary oxygen tank 
is used. 

"One case, and probably the one about which your 
father was reading," continued the boy's friend, 
"was that of a family of three, father, mother and 
little girl, who were asphyxiated, and were apparently 
dead. The pulmotor pumped pure oxygen into their 
lungs until they began to breathe naturally again." 



372 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

When the pulmotor is unpacked from its little 
wooden box, about the size of a suitcase, it looks like 
a confusion of rubber tubes and bags. The oxygen is 
contained in the tank under high pressure, and this 
pressure also furnishes the power to keep up the 
artificial breathing. 




THE PULMOTOR 



A — Oxygen tank. B — Reducing valve. C — Inspirator. 

D-E — Inlet and outlet of controlling valve. F — Operating bellows. 

G — Dashpot bellows. H — Face cap. 

The oxygen flows from the tank through a reduc- 
ing valve, which cuts down the pressure, and into a 
controlling valve whence it flows by a rubber tube 
to the face cap which fits tightly over the patient's 
nose and mouth. The patient's tongue is kept from 



MORE MARVELS OF SCIENCE 373 

sliding back into his throat by a pair of forceps placed 
for the purpose. 

Thus, the oxygen is forced into the lungs by the 
pressure, but when it reaches a certain degree, about 
what it would be in normal breathing, a bellows con- 
nected with the controlling valve is pressed, and the 
pressure is turned to suction so that the oxygen that 
has been forced into the lungs is brought out, through 
the outlet, causing the poisonous gases to be expelled 
from the lungs. After the exhalation is complete 
the controlling valve works again and another blast of 
pure oxygen is sent into the lungs, only to be with- 
drawn at the proper moment. This is kept up until 
the patient's breathing is normal. 

We will leave the scientist and his young friend 
here, for already we have spent more time in following 
their journeys and talks than we set out to do. We 
have not touched upon every invention of the last 
ten years or so, nor every important development, 
by a long ways, but we have gone far enough to get 
a pretty fair idea as to the trend of modern thought 
in inventive research. 

This is the epoch of electricity, and of the utiliza- 
tion of all the great forces of Nature that have been 
right here to our hands since the world began, but 
which it has taken all these thousands of years to 
discover and analyze. More and more man is 
coming to see that Nature's own forces will carry on 
the big works of the world, if they are properly led 



374 THE BOY'S BOOK OF NEW INVENTIONS 

through an understanding of their laws. We have 
aviation because man learned how to utilize the fact 
that air gives support; we have wireless telegraphy, 
and we will have the wireless transmission of power, 
because man learned that Nature has her own perfect 
system of carrying electrical currents when they are 
properly delivered to her, without any cumbersome 
system of wires; we have the Tesla turbine because 
its inventor found out that Nature gave steam, gas, 
water, and even air, certain properties that are 
intangible, and yet stronger far than mere brute 
force; and so it goes: 

Ever a greater familiarity with Nature leads to 
greater progress, and a happier, more interesting 
world. 



THE END 



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